What Really Happens in an Aircraft Emergency
This week, a Mahan Air Boeing 747 travelling to Bandar Abbas in Iran from Tehran’s Mehrabad airport was forced to make an emergency landing after one of its engines fell off two-minutes into the flight.
It is one of a series of high-profile emergency landings and crashes to have featured in the media recently, raising concerns among regular travellers about flight safety.
So what really happens during an emergency on a plane? If a passenger was on that flight, what would the pilots and cabin crew be doing behind the scenes, what would the passengers be asked to do and what survival tips are there in the event of a crash?He continued: ‘[But] in most “emergencies,” we aren’t in a big hurry. Unless it’s smoke, fire, or low on fuel, we can usually take our time to evaluate the problem.’
The type of language used by the pilot helps the cabin crew to decipher how extreme the emergency is very easily.
For example, on American flights, a crew will determine how important and emergency is depending on whether it is ‘urgent’ or ‘distressed.’
An urgent situation is a problem that needs assistance but not necessarily immediately, whereas a ‘distressed’ situation means the flight is in immediate or imminent danger and the situation needs to be addressed straight away.
On flights outside of the US, the phrase ‘Pan-Pan’ is used to describe an urgent situation, while ‘Mayday’ is used to describe a distressed one.
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