Failures and Emergencies — Page 123, Lesson 103

I want to walk you through the procedures for urgency situations in aviation communications. This is a critical part of your training because when something goes wrong in the air, how we communicate determines how quickly and effectively help arrives. Let's start with the urgency signal itself. The radiotelephony urgency signal is PAN PAN. You say it three times — "PAN PAN, PAN PAN, PAN PAN" — to begin any urgency message. This is distinct from the distress signal MAYDAY, which we'll cover separately. PAN PAN tells everyone listening that there is a condition concerning the safety of the aircraft or some person on board, but it is not yet an immediate, grave danger requiring immediate assistance. Now, if you are the pilot of an aircraft reporting an urgency condition — and this procedure applies to aircraft other than those used for medical transports, which have their own rules — here is exactly what you must do. First, you transmit on the air-ground frequency in use at the time. That means the frequency you are already talking on with Air Traffic Control or the station you are working with. You do not switch to a random frequency unless circumstances force you to. Then, your message must consist of the following elements, spoken distinctly and, if possible, in this order. I'll list them for you: 1. The name of the station you are addressing — for example, "London Control" or "Paris Approach." 2. Your aircraft identification — your callsign. 3. The nature of the urgency condition — what exactly is wrong. 4. The intent of the person in command — what you, the pilot, intend to do. 5. Your present position and level — that means your flight level, altitude, or whatever is appropriate for your phase of flight. 6. Your heading. 7. Any other useful information. Now, there is an important Note here. These rules are not intended to prevent you from broadcasting an urgency message if time and circumstances make that preferable. In other words, if you cannot wait to be addressed by a specific station, or you don't know who to call, you can simply broadcast your PAN PAN message on the frequency and let whoever hears it take action. Also, the station you address will normally be the one you are already communicating with, or the one in whose area of responsibility you are operating. Now let's look at what happens on the other end. The station addressed — the one you called — or the first station that acknowledges your urgency message, has specific duties. That station must: - Acknowledge your urgency message — confirm they heard you. - Take immediate action to ensure that all necessary information is made available, as soon as possible, to two parties: - The ATS unit concerned — that's Air Traffic Services, the air traffic control facility responsible for your flight. - The aircraft operating agency concerned, or its representative — that's your airline or company, in accordance with pre-established arrangements. But here is a critical Note: the requirement to inform your operating agency does not have priority over any other action that involves the safety of the flight in distress, or of any other flight in the area, or that might affect the progress of expected flights in the area. So if there is a conflict, safety comes first — always. Additionally, if necessary, that station shall exercise control of communications. That means they may take over managing the frequency to keep it clear for the urgency traffic. Finally, what about all other stations on the frequency? Urgency communications have priority over all other communications except distress. So if someone is in distress — that's a MAYDAY situation — that still comes first. But for everyone else, PAN PAN traffic takes priority. All stations shall take care not to interfere with the transmission of urgency traffic. That means you stop talking, you listen, and you stay off the frequency until the urgency situation is resolved or you are invited back. Let me summarize the key points. PAN PAN, three times, starts an urgency message. You transmit on the current frequency. Your message includes the station addressed, your callsign, the nature of the problem, your intent, position, level, heading, and any other useful info. The station that receives it must acknowledge, pass the info to ATS and your company (safety first), and may take control of communications. Everyone else stays quiet and does not interfere.