Out of the Fire - into the "Pan".
 

Flying with a First Officer who is studying for his French Maritime Captain's license. I had a look at his book - ISBN 2-11-088288-3, called Naviguer & Securite. . .. .Lo and behold it includes distress calls for ship's Captains. Rule 2.8.2.2 para 13 states (in French of course) that in an "Urgent" situation the Captain should send three times the word "Pan". So at least as far as their sailors go, the French are very well familiar with the word Pan. They also have the word "Securite" for less serious problem conditions as well as "Mayday" for emergencies.. .. .Perhaps one of our French colleagues could confirm whether this is still the case in aviation.

And Rule Rule 2.8.2.2 para 14 of HM Gov.Air Navigation Order states:. .. ."Since when do we care what the French think".. .. .I hope this clarifies the situation.. .. .Cheers, Eicas.

FC,. .. .Not surprising since all three distress/urgency calls are derived from French words:. .. .MAYDAY - m'aidez (help me). .. .PAN PAN - panne (a breakdown). .. .SECURITE - sécurité (security). .. .SECURITE is not used in aeronautical communciations (at least - it isn't in North America). It is used by vessel captains or the coastguard to broadcast messages concerning safety of navigation. See for example <a href="http://www.tc.gc.ca/marinesafety/tp/tp9878/tp9878e.htm" target="_blank">Transport Canada</a> or. . <a href="http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/marcomms/gmdss/dscproc.htm#Safety" target="_blank">US Coastguard</a> . .. .I42

SECURITE is not used in the UK (according to CAP 413) and I dont think ICAO uses it so I guess it's not part of the aeronautical RT lexography. . .. .Something to do with the speed at which things happen maybe? <img border="0" title="" alt="[Confused]" src="confused.gif" />

I thought it would be fairly obvious that this item would be of interest to those discussing whether the Pan call would be understood in France on another recent thread. Maybe I should have cross referenced it.

The news is reporting that a highjacking scare on the 12th in France turned out to be a mistaken understanding by a French controller of a emergency call by the pilot. Does anybody know if this was a French to French language difficulty or other?