Mayday Aircraft Asked to Hold 

Kelsey recording this video after being kidnapped and held in an abandoned warehouse? Blink three times if you need us to send the A-Team

As an ARFF Firefighter (Airport Rescue & Fire Fighting) I can tell you a controllers main reason for asking for fuel load in a none low fuel emergency is for us. Our truck carry between 1500 and 3000 gallons of water. We can convert to foam via a foam concentrate we mix into the water. The more fuel you have the more foam we will need if your fuel tanks rupture. We use foam even in the absence of fire because it floats in the leaking fuel and keeps it from being able to ignite. Us knowing how much fuel is onboard gives us that heads up to calculate if we have enough resources. Hours of fuel does not tell us the actual volume because we don’t know the aircraft consumption rate. We have ti have it in pounds or gallons for our calculations. Food for thought for pilots who give it in hours.

Task saturation kills pilots. As a fellow long haul captain, this conversation needs to happen, in earnest much more often. Keep it coming brother.

"You might have to let the engine burn, which isn't part of procedure...but neither is hitting the mountain"....LMAO you always unintentionally crack me up @74 Gear!

14:44 "That may not be procedure, but neither is hitting the mountain." 😂 My kind of humor.

From VASAviation’s videos I’ve learned that if pilots say fuel in pounds they get asked for time, and if they give it in time they get asked for pounds, and if they give it in both they get asked for it in pints.

In the mid 80s my father was flying alone for the DEA in the middle of the night on the way home from a mission when a piston ejected through the hood. He was told to stand by after declaring mayday multiple times until he eventually crash landed in a field. Never was able to communicate with tower. He survived but was knocked unconscious, seat belt caught so hard he had to get stitches in his chest. He was a legend!

Hey, great video. A320 captain here with a different point of view on the hold issue. The time it takes to enter a hold in the FMGC at least in our aircraft is seconds. With only seconds more to check the inbound off a chart you should have access to in again seconds if you've prepped your elec flight bag properly. That also gives you your minimum hold alt. Now in maybe 10 to 15 seconds they know their horizontal and vertical flight path are secure, close to the approach in case anything else gets worse. Deployment of the reverser for instance. And can go back to the nice stuff like telling little Suzie what's going on. Vectors you continually have to check the minimum vector chart on the initial acceptance of the vector and as you continue on it to make sure your still safe minimum altitude. Controllers are human too and do make mistakes. Holding where they were told to takes that away and allowed them to fully focus on the rest of the failure management stuff. Secondly, Suzie is last priority. If it takes 10, 30 even 60 seconds more to make the aircraft safe before taking to pax so be it. That's a nice to do. Not a must do like the fly and nav stuff. Just my 2 cents, Personally I would have been very happy to hold there until ready for the approach. Keep up the good work. Love the videos even if we have a differing opinion. That's what keeps life interesting

"Mayday mayday mayday." "Are you declaring an emergency?" "Is this your first day as an ATC?"

We must appreciate that Kelsey left his nice hotel and brought all of his recording equipment and stood in an abandoned building just to tell us about this!

I’m an older controller at a level 12 facility and this is all great info, I’ve learned a lot from your channel. A lot of the weird questions and misunderstandings you may hear from us nowadays is a product of the FAA’s recent hiring of people with NO previous aviation experience. However, also bear in mind that there IS a lot going on behind the scenes for us too. Internal coordination between sectors and/or the tower, calling the domestic event network, moving other aircraft out of your way, rolling the equipment, dealing with stupid supervisors mouth breathing over our shoulder asking dumb questions, etc. So we may or may not have operational bandwidth to be able to give progressive instructions either, depending on workload. When they pull the tapes on these incidents they usually tell the computer to filter out all the other transmissions to declutter, so who knows what else was going on. Love your stuff, keep up the good work!

Kelsey deserves a fifth stripe. Addresses serious matters with an outrageous tongue in cheek humour. As he says (twice) "I'm just a big cry baby". Who tosses around 747's like they are feathers. 74Gear rules!

From the European ATC perspective I don't agree with what You said about fuel. If we ask for "fuel on board", we want the kilograms or tonnes. The only purpose of that information is to pass it to the firefighters. Since it is you, who have the emergency, we don't need to know how long CAN You fly. We want to know how long you WANT to fly. If you need immediate return, you will get it. If you need 10 minutes for the checklist, you will get it. If you need 2 hour for fuel burning You will get it. If we need to know how long you can fly there's an other word in phreseology: "endurance". "Report endurance" - the answer must be in minutes/hours. And we rarely would use that in an emergency. It happens in "weather situations. Or in our unit's case - with military traffic, which has diffrent fuel regulations. They come back to land with much lower endurance remaining than commercial planes.

"The universal distress call Mayday was invented in 1923 by Frederick Stanley Mockford, chief radio officer at Croydon airport in London. The authorities had asked him to find a term to signal distress that would be easily understood by all pilots and ground staff in the event of an emergency. Mockford chose a phonetic transcription of the pronunciation of the French expression "m'aider" - ‘help me’ (a shortened version of "venez m'aider") which had been uttered by a French pilot in distress two years earlier and which was understood by the English operator as "Mayday". And Pan Pan is from the French 'Panne' (Breakdown)

So this is a typical pilot perspective. I say that as a commercial helicopter pilot. But I'm also an ATC. Pilots think about themselves. They should, it's their job, to fly THEIR aircraft. Controllers on the other hand, think about EVERY aircraft. So whilst as you say, you are very busy in the cockpit, there is a lot going on for the controller too. Firstly, the aircraft with the mayday is the priority but there is still every other aircraft under his control that still needs to be monitored, vectored, or handed off so that the controller has less traffic to think about. He also needs to co-ordinate. This would be with the aisle supervisor, probably a quick note to say "heads up, I've got a mayday, I'll get back to you". He will then contact the tower to let them know to stop departures like you mentioned and to let them have a rough idea as to what is occurring. This process will continue and every time the controller gets new info he'll have to co-ordinate it. Oh and he still has all those other aircraft I talked about to control. One of the fastest ways to have two aircraft get close together or have some sort of incident is to get hyper focused on an emergency to the detriment of all your other traffic. When the controller gave the vector to the hold, in my opinion he was basing that on what the pilot has told him both verbally and by his demeanor. You mentioned the pilot sounded calm and in control. The shut down was procedural, not due to something like a bird strike or fire. Yes it was an emergency but even the pilots said they'd like to hold whilst they problem solve. I have found over my 20 year ATC career I have learnt that you can tell a lot from how the pilots communicate. I've heard everything from guys like this to people who knew they were about to die on the radio. So based on how they talk to me I will tailor my response accordingly. That's not to say that you can load the cool, calm and collected guy/girl up. The situation can change quickly but you definitely make decisions based on both what and how something is said. One other thing to think about. The pilot said he'd need to hold. It's quite possible that the controller thought the pilot may be actually asking to be sent to SCAPO where the published hold is. I'm not saying that's definitely what happened but it's possible. Again it comes back to communication. The pilot could have just as easily come back and asked for vectors as you say. Listening to this guy, I feel , had it been out of his ability to manage he would have said something. He sounded like a pro to me. All of this doesn't mean I'm saying you are wrong. I just feel it's a lot more nuanced than is alluded to here.

14:41 "That may not be procedure... but neither is hitting the mountain" Lol!! I love these explanations expressed in such a straightforward way

As a controller I always assumed holding wasn’t that hard to do for a pilot. Seems like a good idea to have them hold close to the field so they can be ready to come in when they’re ready. I think the majority of controllers that don’t have piloting experience think this way until we see stuff like this explaining it. My initial thought was that giving the hold instructions would’ve been easier because now they’re in one spot near the field and no longer expecting any more radio calls for more control instructions while they troubleshoot and configure. I’ll keep this video in mind if I’m in the scenario in the future but truly I (and a lot of us) didn’t/don’t know how much workload it increases. As you said though the pilot should’ve said unable to his hold instructions if it increases the workload that much. Not all of us know how to fly a plane and how much goes into certain tasks and we just want to help lol Ps. Super embarrassing that a pilot said mayday, mayday, mayday and the controller asked if he was declaring an emergency 🤦🏼‍♂️

"That may not be procedure, but neither is hitting the mountain" 🤣🤣🤣..Kelsey ,I love you!!!

Totally agree with the 2.2 issue. As a retired controller/supervisor phraseology has been written in blood. Stick to the pilot-controller glossary and recommended phraseology. What does the controller think "Mayday, mayday, mayday" mean other than an emergency? Controller giving an alt and heading is perfect, then all the pilot to aviate, navigate, then get to you. Also once the pilot gives SOB and fuel remaining in time (if they give lbs take it, let pilot fly) coordinate all the subsequent controllers know and won't ask again. So, as a controller, and 10,000+ corporate pilot you nailed this, not surprised. I feel any engine failure (for 2 engined aircraft), keeping the aircraft sort of close to the airport just in case of the other engine buggering up. Weather issuance was good, totally agree. I'd have asked the pilot if they wanted vectors or holding, and if holding where they'd like to hold. And if holding at the controllers discretion, issue easy holding...give a point and ask the pilot how they'd like to hold. The PILOT is the BOSS. Controllers are not very well versed on aircraft fly, or even emergencies aside from how to handle them, so keep that in mind.

I've seen a lot of aircraft emergency videos where the controller asks for "FUEL IN POUNDS" not in time. I always assumed this was to give the fire fighting folks an idea of how big a disaster they need to prepare for.

Reverser deployed in flight: 🔸Lauda Air flight NG004, Thailand, 26 May 1991, B767, fatalities: 223 (no survivors) 🔸TAM flight JJ402, Brazil, 31 October 1996, F100, fatalities: 103 (no survivors)

i appreciate kelsey negotiating with his kidnappers to let him set up his filming equipment and record the video. editor also did a great job cutting out the screams. im glad they gave him access to wifi. haha love your vids

Great commentary on passengers hearing engine shutdown. I was on a commercial flight which lost an engine (felt like the fan was going to rip through the fuselage when it went out). Seemed like 5 minutes or more before the Captain made an announcement. I already knew they were busy 1)assessing the situation and 2)going through checklists. We landed at an alternate airport after 30 minutes of flying with 1 engine and praying it didn’t burn out from overload. Always professional, courteous, and I believe the crew was relieved to be safely on terra firma as well. Thanks as always for the commentary.

Mayday comes from the French M'aider meaning 'help me' . PAN also comes from the French word Panne meaning breakdown. So when you call Mayday, you want help to go somewhere, like right now. When you call PAN, you're saying 'I have a breakdown, and give me some space to sort it out; don't need immediate assistance for now'. The level of urgency is lower with a PAN, because you don't have to proceed somewhere immediately.

I was taught to give the critical numbers in an emergency. If fuel low give duration remaining so controllers know to expedite, if fuel is high give amount on board so fire teams know what they are dealing with.

Most simulator scenarios at my airline have us do a hold after an engine failure on departure followed by a return to the airport. But hey, that's the sim... we understand the game and play along. In reality, I would certainly refuse any hold given, and request vectors. When we changed from "declaring an emergency" to PAN-PAN-PAN I was like "how am I going to remember calling PAN in an emergency after years of training with "declaring an emergency"? Couple years later we had to shut down an engine at 1500ft after departure, and to my surprise I did call PAN-PAN-PAN !! I asked for 15-20 min vectors to get ourselves ready to come back SE, that's what we got no problem, ATC was super helpful. Once on final the controller asked us to "keep the speed up". My answer was "Negative". He immediately apologized and said "Speed at you discretion".

"That might not be procedure, but neither is hitting a mountain" - true wisdom right there

You can just tell that Kelsey is very proud of his 747s every time he mentions them.

Many years ago we lost an outboard engine on takeoff from Lajes field, Azores. We were in a KC130 bagged out with 65 thousand pounds of fuel. Once we’d shut down the engine and started to dump fuel and barely having positive rate of climb, we declared Mayday and came around to land but were directed to extend our down wind for a P-3 that was in the pattern doing touch and goes. Got to love it.

Kelsey has been kidnapped by the crew schedulers lmao. That abandoned warehouse background makes me laugh.

Glad Kelsey addressed ATC asking if the pilots were declaring an emergency. I, never having piloted a plane a day in my life or even played a flight sim game, was yelling at the screen. "YES, that's what a mayday IS -- an emergency!"

Such a cool, calm, collected *BURN* of the controller's mishandling of the situation. Love it.

Speaking from a firefighter’s perspective there’s WAY too much radio traffic wasted on fuel during emergency incidents. If they give fuel remaining in time, ATC or fire wants pounds. If they give it in pounds, they want time. I’ve seen incidents where the plane is almost over the threshold and either fire or ATC wants to know the fuel on board which is not a valid reason to distract the pilots seconds from touchdown IMHO. It simply doesn’t matter at that point. It doesn’t make one iota of difference to the ARFF crews if it’s 10k or 20k of fuel, every commercial passenger jet is landing with enough fuel for “big bada boom.” If a flight *just* departed then that information alone negates any need to ask about time or weight of fuel, because obviously the flight has plenty. In cases of fuel leaks, fuel starvation, other fuel related emergencies then yes people will want to know how much fuel is on board in which case crews should simply provide time and weight so there’s not this back/forth all the damn time. Now I know it’s easier and preferred to have standard emergency procedures so it “makes sense” to ask about fuel anytime an emergency is declared - except we’re currently doing that and can’t even get it right in the US. Something needs to change.

I'm glad Kelsey confirmed, "hitting the mountain is not procedure."

Outstanding! Thank You. We love you down here in South Florida!

Once in the hold, and you've checked you're above MSA, it's super relaxing. You don't need to be concerned about terrain clearance, you know that you're close to the final approach (in this case), and the controller knows you are at SCAPO wrt other traffic. No need to keep giving you vectors to keep you inside his airspace, away from other a/c, and the workload for the pilots is lower. Time for emergency management without distracting radio calls and twiddling the heading knob (and then checking your trajectory is safe). As for refusing a hold and asking for vectors, that is great if that is their preference - ATC has to oblige (or would be a brave controller to refuse). A small amount of work for 1 minute checking the spelling of the holding fix and checking it on the plate, checking course, direction of hold and MSA is time well spent for an easy life once you reach the hold. IMHO. PS you also know you are X minutes from landing after leaving the hold (depending on position). You don't really have that awareness under vectors, which can be important if low on fuel

Kelsey: "I'm a big fat crybaby" - best laugh I've had in a while! 😅

When I was in ATC I I added to the end of the phraseology to "How much fuel remaining?" IN TIME?" Sure speeded up the process and gave the information needed first thing.

I am so glad you explained the fuel thing. I always assumed it for the fire dept to know how much fuel on the ground ... Thanks for confirming it's for ATC to know how much time you have. Thank you!

An amazing video and an exceptionally great explanation you made, yes I'm a nervous flyer, so thank you for all of the information you have passed on to viewers to better understand what goes on in situations like this. Congratulations on being a pilot, that is a job I could never do.

A very good debrief! As a simulator instructor, I know how busy the pilots are when they have an engine issue during take-off and initial climb. The checklists are long, and the approach chart is something they will only think about later when the issue has been taken care of. Flying into an airport you are not 100% familiar with makes it much harder.

Kelsey, if you listen to the recording really closely when the pilot was transmitting the MAYDAY declaration, it sounds like ATC is stepping on the pilot (you’ll need good quality headphones). So it makes sense that ATC asked if he was declaring an emergency because he didn’t hear that part. Thanks to your channel and videos for training my ear to even notice that!

Kelsey, really nice job breaking down this incident. You spoke of things I would have never been aware of…learned a lot. Well done.

Flora's such a lucky dog ! I hope you all have a lovely time ,I can't wait to see all flora's hoilday adventures xxx❤

I'm a Rideshare driver that works PDX. That planes was parked in Alaskas Maintenance spot for over a week. They had to pull the entire cowling and reverser off. I don't think American has maintenance facilities at PDX either so that probably complicated things.

I was riding in the jump seat on a C-5B Galaxy out of Travis AFB years ago. On take off, at about 120 knots, we had a reverser unlocked indication. The crew immediately rejected the take off, but weren't sure if they should use reverse thrust to stop, the checklist wasn't clear, so they relied on the brakes. Luckily, we were empty, with a light fuel load (going up for air-to-air refueling training), so we stopped with plenty of concrete left in front of us, but the brakes were seriously hot. Taxied off, fire department made sure nothing was on fire or smoking, so we went back to the ramp. Ended up being a mis-rigged sensor (had just been replaced the day before). Maintenance fixed it, tested it, and we were back on our way in about an hour and a half. Luckily the tanker didn't have anything else to do that day, so we completed the mission and everybody got current. Still a bit scary though, thinking about one of those big GE TF-39s suddenly deciding to go the opposite direction.

Loving this format! I am just a passionate simmer (who is getting is PPL with a PA-28) but simulating emergencies is something I should do way more and having a reference from the real world is very insightful.

Thanks for clarifying the reason for asking about fuel on board. I always assumed it was so they could notify firefighters how big of a fireball to expect if the plane crashed (or something like that).

Hey! You have four bars! Congratulations!

I demand a T-Shirt with "That may not be procedure, but neither is hitting the mountain" LOL.

That's good advice telling ATC time in fuel vs weight. I've never had to declare a may day (tap tap tap)I've listened to a few. Your take and explanation on situations is another reason why I enjoy your video's. Thank you.

"That may not be procedure. But so is not hitting a mountain." LOL I heard this audio and yeah, for ATC to ask again about the Mayday blew my mind. Great vid!

Being an ATC controller since 28 years, I had quite a few emergencies on my frequencies - including engine shutdowns. We also always listen to the voices of the flightcrews to determine their stress level and how we can work with them based on what we hear. This particular pilot did not sound overly stressed out after they had shut down the engine and he even requested delay vectors to set the aircraft up for a proper approach and landing. The controller however let them fly to SCAPO to enter the holding there which I do not find that discerning for several reasons: 1. as mentioned above, the crew sounded calm enough and needed time and miles anyway 2. SCAPO is the initial approach fix - so in case they wanted to start the approach, they wouldn´t have been too far out, which - on the other hand - could happen any time with delay vectors (which they did request) as the controller usually does not know when the aircraft is ready to commence the approach. 5000ft would also be 1000ft above the initial approach altitude what gives them additional safety margin if needed 3. as far as I understand, letting the aircraft enter a holding pattern and let the crew just fly that pattern on autopilot takes away another distraction from them which is receiving new vectors every 20 or so seconds (depending on the size of airspace or 5000ft radar vectoring minimum the controller has available) I´m absolutely on your side regarding sloppy phraseology...

a bigger issue with inflight deployment of thrust reversers is that it creates a plume of air infront of the affected engine and wing, wich leads to loss of lift, wich then can lead to an aerodynamic stall. this happend in 1991 to Lauda Air Flight 004

I'm not sure why I haven't seen you for awhile, but I see that you have become a Captain in the interim. Congratulations! I have always enjoyed your videos.

Controller here. I’ve been taught early on to prioritize emergency aircraft (obviously) and without task saturating them give the pilot options and/or ask them for what they want/need. In these type of situations a hold is easier for the controller in the sense that we are also coordinating in a lot of ways (with the supervisor for the best option for the airport, with the tower, with fire, etc.) but just throwing out a fix randomly is not the way to go. I would go more with “hey I can give you the initial fix to the airport to hold at IF YOUD LIKE” and if they want it leave them on vectors until the PILOT is ready to proceed direct. And leave them alone until they feel comfortable in their tasking to find the fix and figure out if that works for them. If not then I’ll just work vectors.

Hours of fuel remaining may be important to you and specific to your aircraft, but pounds of fuel is very standard and useful to the fire crew on the ground.

Retired 777 check pilot here. Thank you for addressing the Mayday vs Pan, Pan issue. We began transitioning to this ICAO training within the last two years and, as usual, U.S. ATC seems to be the last to know. Both are a means of declaring an emergency. “Mayday” is defined as “grave and imminent” danger. “Grave” means, you’re gonna die. “Immanent” means, you’re gonna die right away. 😂. “Pan, pan” simply means, “Urgent.” You’re correct, which you declare is based upon your situation at the moment. Unless I am actively on fire - engine, cargo, or other - or anything els3 I deem to be “grave and imminent” I’m going to err toward, Pan, pan. That’s just me, or was me. Great analysis.

it's always a blast watching your vlogs Mr Kelsey. I love the way you commentate on your short documentaries.

I swear Kelsey never blinks

I live in Scappoose (ie: SCAPO). Of the areas surrounding PDX, it is the least populated, surrounded by fields, and next to the Columbia river. If an aircraft has to go down, this would be the best place for it, even pulling a Sully and landing in the river. I'll bet it is SOP for PDX to orbit any emergency aircraft in this area to minimize the potential collateral ground damage should a crash be inevitable. It makes complete sense to me that the controller immediately vectored them away from the high density urban areas.

*Pilot **_"Mayday, Mayday Mayday Mayday, Mayday Mayday Mayday, Mayday Mayday Mayday, Mayday Mayday "_* *ATC **_"Is this an emergency?"_*

I like that, "That may not be procedure, but neither is hitting the mountain."

Love this pilot’s sense of humor: “…you might just let that thing burn out there and get away from the mountains and that may not be procedure, but neither is hitting the mountain.”

14:42 "It is not procedure to hit a mountain." Good to know this is standard airline policy!

As a powerplants engineer whom has been party to lots of flight testing including TR deployment in flight test, you should be afraid of a reverser unlocked message in flight. What it means is that you have lost one of several inadvertent deployment preventions which means you are one step closer to deployment. In flight deployment of a wing TR on a wing mounted engine is more than likely catastrophic. Teh crew in this case did exactly the right thing, shut down the engine.

Great breakdown of situation as always. Thank you. Really like your channel.

This is all so very interesting. Thanks for posting/sharing. Cheers!

That’s a spirit and love for his RU-vid audience, even when he is kidnapped in this warehouse he still wear his nice clean and press captain shirt and made a RU-vid video for us. 👊👍🏻

Wow! I just noticed the captain's bars. Congrats!! 🎉

"That may not be procedure... But neither is hitting the mountain" Love your videos Kelsey

As a private pilot, I thoroughly enjoy your videos. Thank you for your contribution to aviation safety.

2.2 for 4??? .. 4 wickets for 2.2 overs is impressive bowling 👏

Its interesting that Kelsey should talk about reverting to what you're most familiar with in an emergency and why speaking correctly is so important to do all the time so you revert to correct communication when faced with an emergency. Then to have the controller revert to what he's most familiar with, a standard holding instruction, instead of offering holding vectors.

What a great episode. I was hanging on every minute. I'm not a pilot, but this had me on the edge of my seat. Thanks.

It depends on your available nav equipment. With some systems you can easily pull up that published hold and set the autopilot to "nav" and it will give you everything including the teardrop/parallel/direct entry and fly it for you.

Hey Kelsey. God bless you for raising RT discipline by many US pilots. As an Aussie, it is so frustrating to hear the shortcuts accepted as standards phraseology. As to fuel on board notification with a mayday, my understanding is that the notification is for RFFS situational awareness. So they want to know the weight of the fuel onboard to assist with the planning of the amount of extinguishing agent needed in case that weight of fuel erupts into flame. If it was for ATC SA purposes relating to when you’re going to run out of juice, they’d ask for endurance. That’s just my take… As for holding v vectors. It’s a cultural thing I think. I’m so used to holding to complete procedures during sim sessions, that I find it funny to hear people ask for vectors all the time. In fact, it’s SOP where I work (and places I’ve worked prior) that we program a return in the secondary flight plan that includes a hold if published. When the engine goes bang, we fly the escape procedure, then ask for a DIR TO the hold. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

I agree with your points regarding the Mayday X 3 call and rough time estimates for FOB. I offer up an alternative perspective regarding vectors vs. holding. First, I never trust a controller explicitly. During the emergency (same as at all times), it is ultimately my responsibility to “Aviate, Navigate, and effectively Communicate” until we reach a successful conclusion to the flight. If I’m in a situation where I need to reduce our crew’s task loading, burn down fuel, etc.; I prefer to hold. Holding does a few things for me. It adds an additional resource operating our automation at a higher level hooked up to our FMC. It also helps to maintain a higher level of situational awareness as it speeds up our cross check on not only where we are but also where we are relative to our intended approach and airfield, restricted airspace, high terrain/obstacles, etc. Finally, it reduces the risk of missing an important radio call and excessive radio calls to listen for in general. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes vectors alone are fine in many situations. Regarding ATC’s calls, we’re really “splitting hairs” on that. If ATC asks if I am declaring an emergency, “Affirmative, I AM DECLARING AN EMERGENCY AND WE ARE RETURNING TO LAND.” No big deal, whatever I need to do to establish a shared mental model. I agree the controller could have avoided dropping the point on the crew but again, no big deal. I find the best controllers work as a team with the pilots establishing that “shared mental model “ I referred to earlier. Ultimately, I believe everyone involved did an outstanding job communicating and working together to safely recover the aircraft. I really enjoy your videos buddy. Thanks for all you do. BD

Incredibly insightful video, as always!

Great video on the importance of proper radio phraseology. Many pilots in the US have terrible radio discipline. You are so right about how having short cut habits on the radio that one uses when flying domestically can create confusion and make a pilot sound like an amateur when flying internationally. Many people have strong opinions that are not based on the regulations or on official recommended procedures. For those who are quick to criticize when someone offers good advice, it’s worth taking the time to research the topic in the appropriate official regulation or publication before being so quick to criticize or dispute a person who shares good advice.

Good morning to you, Captain Kelsey from Chicago. I miss those weekly videos man when we get them, they're good. Have a good day, BROTHER ! KEEP THE BLUE SIDE UP 🛩🫡

Kelsey you missed a chance to tell this pilot Joke: There's a story about the military pilot calling for a priority landing because his single-engine jet fighter was running "a bit peaked." Air Traffic Control told the fighter jock that he was number two, behind a B-52 that had one engine shut down. "Ah," the fighter pilot remarked, "The dreaded seven-engine approach."

“That might not be procedure. But neither is hitting a mountain.” LOL!

Brief, concise and specific, in a language using terminology that the aviator can understand. Ask the details that are relevant for ground crews to be prepared, but don't ask for information or give more tasks, give that guy some vectors, he doesn't need to look at a pub while he is doing checklists. Good review here Kelsey, some good lessons for everyone.

Back in the early 80's, I was flying in the pattern at Fulton County Airport (FTY and then known as Charlie Brown Airport). It was a super busy day. A Piper Navajo had just taken off and called a Mayday as his left engine went out. I'll never forget it. The controller responded, "Roger, Piper xxx make a LEFT 360 for spatial clearance." The rules about cussing on the radio temporarily went out the window. Fortunately, he made a safe landing. My instructor said that the controller got a little re-educating.

Inflation really hitting hard, they couldn't afford to put Kelsey in an actual room so they chose an abandoned building instead

Retired ATC. I always wanted to know which engine was shut down because you don’t want to issue vectors that make the aircraft turn towards the engine which is shut down or at least set the aircraft up so that the pilot can make wide turns toward the bad engine.

Thank you for sharing this information safe travels

I love Kelsey’s channel, he is so humble and charming.I would fly with him as Captain anywhere.

“That may not be procedure,but neither is hitting the mountain” 😂

Kelsey, I trust you implicitly. Thanks for your layman's explanations.

It's been a while since I've watched! You've got captain boards now! Congrats Kelsey!

It's worth remembering that once a pilot has declared an emergency, they do not have to follow ATC instructions, they can ignore ATC and simply do what they need to do to for the best of the aircraft and the persons on board.

"Mayday Mayday Mayday" - "Do you want to declare an emergency?" Does ATC even know what mayday stands for these days?

"Hitting a mountain is not a procedure."🤣 Gold.👍 And we actually do need a t-shirt with that.

I really appreciate how thorough you are in explaining what the pilots are doing and how as passengers we need to give the pilots time to do what they need to do instead of giving updates to the. Passengers when they are extremely busy trying to land the plane. I know if I ever experience an emergency I will try to remember how busy the pilots are as well as the flight attendants trying to get the cabin ready for landing. Love your channel ❤

Hearing you talk about the pan-pan vs. Mayday engine scenario where this 747 crew told ATC that they had an engine out, and when ATC asked if they’re declaring an emergency the 747 crew responded “no, we’re fine!”

as a side note, growing up with a pilot father, I remember when the CB radio craze hit and ATC was complaining about the jargon creeping into their communications

I agree. Evaluating someone else's situation is a good form of self training, self preparedness. I'm no pilot. Never even had a single lesson. However I still evaluate situations for self training, even if I'm not involved.

Just an FYI, we actually want the fuel in lbs like the pilot gave. We pass the info along to ARFF. They want to know how many bodies, how big of fireball. If the pilot give fuel in time, we ask what the weight is.