RADIO SILENCE, ASSISTANCE, and TERMINATING EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS

SECTION 5 - Flight Radio PPL Course

RADIO SILENCE: For example, if a Mayday call was received by the Wellington Control Tower, until the situation was resolved (or the traffic in distress was transferred to another frequency), they would transmit;

“All stations, Wellington Tower. Stop transmitting. Mayday.”

RADIO SILENCE (aircraft-XYZ): If the Tower wanted to address an individual aircraft, the call would be;

“Xray (ECKSray) Yankee (YANGkey) Zulu (ZOOloo), Wellington Tower. Stop transmitting. Mayday.” Radio silence can be imposed for distress (Mayday) traffic, but cannot be imposed for Urgency (PAN PAN) traffic.

RADIO SILENCE: If Alfa Bravo Charlie wanted to impose radio silence due to a Mayday call, their call would be;

“All stations, Alfa Bravo Charlie. Stop transmitting. Mayday.”

RESUMING NORMAL TRANSMISSIONS: If not involved in assisting with the distress, you can resume normal transmissions again when;

• You are providing assistance

• The controlling station allows it

• The traffic in distress has changed to another frequency

• The distress situation is cancelled or resolved

TERMINATING A DISTRESS CALL; If the pilot in command of the distress aircraft decides that the emergency has been resolved, they must transmit a cancellation of it, using the words:

Distress traffic ended (for a Mayday call)

TERMINATING A URGENCY CALL; If the pilot in command of the Urgency aircraft decides that the emergency has been resolved, they must transmit a cancellation of it, using the words:

Urgency traffic ended (for a PAN PAN call)