Originally Posted by
docbert
but ATC clearly says "United 839, Roger Mayday".
That is so ironic... the United States is the only country in the world where the word "mayday" is
not in use, an rather the phraseology "declare an emergency" or similar must be used. Similarly "roger" is commonly used in the US, but rarely elsewhere other than in naval or military applications, general ICAO phraseology dictates "copy" or "affirm" or similar, so when I first heard this story I immediately was surprised that the US (presumably) pilots on the US airlines used the correct "mayday" call rather than declaring an emergency. Now it is ironic that in the response the ATC used the non-standard "roger"...
Sorry, bit of a ATC-nerd tangent
(More ATC Fun: one should say affirm, not affirmative, as the latter could be confused with negative, the number three is pronounced tree (as well as 9 being niner, which is more commonly known) and, at least in SA where I hold a PPL, the phrase "repeat" is to be avoided as in military speak it means fire again, instead one should use "say again")