Originally Posted by
skywardhunter
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
“Roger” is entirely appropriate in the context and is standard for use in Australia, “copy” is not while “affirm” means yes, not acknowledgment of a statement. Acknowledgment of a PAN or MAYDAY in fact must be done by the use of “Roger” - Manual of Air Traffic Services Aug 2018 V 45.2 section 4.2.5.2
The pilot was also correct in declaring a mayday “EMERGENCY FUEL 12.1 The pilot-in-command shall declare a situation of fuel emergency by broadcasting MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY FUEL, when the calculated usable fuel predicted to be available upon landing at the nearest airport where a safe landing can be made is less than the planned fixed fuel reserve and as a result of this predicted fuel state, the aircraft requires immediate assis-tance.
NOTE: MAYDAY FUEL declaration is a distress message. A distress message is reported when the pilot in command has assessed the aircraft is threatened with grave and imminent danger and requires immediate assistance.
12.2 It is a requirement in any case where an aircraft lands with less than its planned fixed fuel reserve that the pilot-in-command shall consider the event an immediately reportable matter and file the required report.”
Use of Mayday in the US is also mandated, see
http://tfmlearning.faa.gov/Publicati...6/aim0603.html