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Have you ever declared an emergency?

Curious who has ever declared an emergency and what were the circumstances.

I did once. Not long after getting my PPL I flew to Krakow/Poland in a simple VFR equipped C172. The weather got pretty bad with thunderstorms closing in from all sides. We made it to Krakow but were not granted permission to land. There was an Airbus 320 lined up waiting for the thunderstorms directly above the threshold to move on. Tower told us to circle in one edge of the control zone until the Airbus has departed and the path to the threshold was clear of thunderstorms.

Thunderstorms kept coming closer and there were more and more cells, it all went amazingly fast. We (3 rookies) were extremely nervous and saw the strikes left and right. We kept asking ATC, telling them that we're very uncomfortable but only got a response "no problem, the thunderstorm is half a mile away from you, continue to circle." Well, we had strikes what looked like 100m from us and visibility went to almost zero in pouring rain and it got very dark. We contemplated putting down the Cessna on a field next to the airport as ATC continued to refuse to let us land, also because we'd have to go through a thunderstorm to reach the threshold of the landing direction. Fortunately at some point I realized that it would be completely stupid to do an off airport landing when there is a huge runway right in front of us.

So I told ATC: "I declare an emergency, we are now landing on runway xx (opposite direction with ca 15kt tailwind), with or without an Airbus on it". Then we went into final approach and heard ATC reluctantly instruct the Airbus to leave the runway which happened just in time (well, the runway was 4x the length we needed, even with the strong tailwind). We landed without problems and were expecting police, fire fighters, the whole program but all we got is "Welcome to Krakow International, for taxi call 123.45".

It was this trip where I realized that one should clearly tell ATC what the situation is and what one needs. Too much respect can get you killed.

Once, sort of. We had a rough running diesel, at the time when they were new, and got a priority clearance back to the airfield. We elected to climb while the engine was running to give us better gliding options, but as it turned out the engine ran all the way. Don't remember the cause or solution to our problem but was pretty happy about the outcome. A few weeks earlier a colleague had fuel pouring over the cowling from a burst high pressure line on the same type engine. They also made it back safely, but the issue was slightly more serious than ours.

Fire dept got to excercise their trucks too so were rather pleased. :-)

ESSB, Stockholm Bromma

Not yet. I did admit to being lost near (possibly inside) controlled airspace on a grubby day in a VFR aircraft, at which admission the friendly controller found me without benefit of transponder and put me within sight of a good landmark with a motorway going where I wanted to be. It's actually quite hard to admit to being lost......

It's supposed to be fun.
LFDW

Pan call while working Shannon. Trapped by forming high fog banks while over sea, west of Spanish Point, below 1000' and climbed up through cloud. Used Pan to get permission to fly in cloud, as IMC was not valid outside UK airspace. Legal option would have been to ditch.

Maoraigh
EGPE, United Kingdom

Did it twice. The first time was during my test flight for the multiengine rating. Right after takeoff while turning into the downwind the cabin became full with smoke; we had an electric fire so I landed very quickly. The second time was in Italy talking with Roma Information. We were over mountains when 1 cyl. disappeared of the EDM-700 display, at the same time we also lost 5kts airspeed, add to it that the engine was ~ 70h after second o/h (the first failed after 70h)you can understand what went inside my head. Emergency was declared and we diverted to Perugia. 3 days later and 750 Euro lighter (it was a broken elect. wire) we were on our way back home just to find ourselves in a very sticky situation over the Med. due to A.P failure. We cruised at 3500" inside a CU when the A.P failed, then we started to go down at 1500"/sec and 60 degrees bank, while trying to understand what was going on I calculated that I have 2min. to save our life.

Ben

No 3 low level in a C130 formation at night. No 1 got lost inside Southampton Zone; Squawk 7700 broke formation and climbed out calling Mayday.

I have never done a Mayday but did a Pan once, when I got a huge hydraulic leak in the landing gear system. It was on the first flight after an Annual, predictably...

The gear just kept coming down. In was an internal leak in the system (equivalent to operating the manual emergency gear release valve, whose seals, pointlessly mandated to be replaced every 2 years, were incorrectly installed by the CAMO) but I didn't know that at the time, and it might have been an external leak, with a fire hazard, plus the stuff is corrosive and makes a mess.

I got a priority landing.

On another occassion I got a burning smell in the cockpit, which on that occassion I didn't know was coming from a burning KFC225 autopilot servo. It happened over N France (the same spot over which several others burnt out). The AP disconnected which gave me the clue as to what it was, so I pulled out the AP CBs and the smell went away. I continued flying manually. Once speaking to UK ATC I told them I had earlier got a burning smell but fixed it by disconnecting the AP, but if I get any more trouble I will turn off all electrics and proceed to Shoreham non-radio. I gave them the ETA for Shoreham. Nothing more happened but when I landed at Shoreham I was met by the complete circus; 4 fire engines, 4 ambulances, police, the lot. Apparently "smell" became "smoke" which became "fire" and they thought an aircraft (which they knew was carrying an oxygen cylinder) would be landing on fire. But no emergency was declared on that flight.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Once. Was on my way up to Peterlee in the north-east of England, fl75 approaching Newcastle, in IMC, when the alternator went 'BANG". The ammeter and voltmeter showed no charge and a red light came on on the dashboard. I explained the problem to Durham Tees Vally intergalactic spaceport atc and that I needed a diversion, who said they were busy with inbounds and circuit traffic. I declared a "pan" and got a more constructive response, but still had to explain why I was reluctant to head out 10 miles over the north sea to position for the approach for the westerly runway. All the while, I was bombarded with a stream of really fatuous chatter and questions from atc, who just couldn't bring themselves to shut up. The concept of trying to conserve electrical power through load-shedding was clearly an alien concept....

The landing was a non-event. Trying to find a way of solving the buggered alternator in an airport devoid of anything save for quantities of 'jobsworths' in high viz tabbards was another story.

I once had an engine failure after passing the Leeuwarden CTR on my way from the Ameland island to Lelystad with my son and his girlfriend on board. We had and could make a successful emergency landing at the airforce base. The engine was broken and had to be replaced at the airforce base before I was able to fly the plane out again. At least I could record EHLW in my logbook.

Another time I had an alternator failture overhead Brussels and was given direct vectors and permission to land to Oostende to land. 10 minutes later all the electrical power was gone and I used my hand radio to ask the tower of Oostende to look at the landing gear and if the wheels came down alright. The next day I got permission to leave Oostende for a flight back to Lelystad without transponder, no electricity, no radio (except my handheld) and no indicators to show engine status, etc.

Two weeks ago I got an "Oil Pressure" warning on my PFD in the Cirrus SR22T. I was flying south of Lille and just informed ATC that I was getting this warning and would like to get as straight as possible a route to my destination, which I got immediately. I suspected the Oil Pressure warning to be a sensor problem as all the other indicators were perfectly ok.

EDLE, Netherlands

Two pans, both loss of power and rough running in a single just after take-off.

First was in a largish vintage taildragger 300ft outbound EGBK 24, I was in the right hand seat and my student was flying. He handed control to me, I declared a pan (arguably I should have called Mayday, but the response was identical), manoeuvred to land on the disused Rwy 17.

I am happy that I handled it well, but the main lesson for me subsequently was about not relaxing my SA when flying as an instructor as I was just a tiny bit too relaxed, and the few seconds I spent getting mentally back into the aeroplane at no notice were rather stressful. Eventually found to be a combined fuel/ignition failure.

Second was much less severe rough running at about 1000ft in an AA5 variant (eventually tracked down to probably carb ice in the climb because I was leaning a little for best power and in retrospect shouldn't have) outbound EGTE. I was in marginal VMC and about to climb into IMC, so decided not to hang around, called a pan, and landed downwind. Fault eventually identified, did the trip fully rich, no snags.

The first created a mindset change in me, and I think made me much more ready to declare an emergency and take the help available to me than I had been previously - I suspect that without it, I'd not have declared a pan on the second occasion.

G

Boffin at large
Various, southern UK.
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