When have you declared an emergency?

[mandm]

If you want to share your story of an emergency declared to ATC.

 

[Kritchlow]

Many,many moons ago I declared when I shut down an engine in a Navaho. I shut it down moments before it would have seized due to major oil leak. Landed in ISP single engine.

 

[Clip4]

Engine loss.

 

[champ driver]

The latest was loss of oil pressure, shut it down in the mid 30's over the Rocky's, declared and landed at APA, Denver Centennial.
The first was 1984 and a engine fire at 14,000' over NM in a C-401, didn't have time to declare, landed in a hurry, plane was totaled, no one got a scratch.

 

[midlifeflyer]

Two fun ones. Both loss of power. In both cases "only" partial but not enough power left to maintain altitude.

Loss of power in the clouds over the Rockies.
Loss of power shortly after takeoff with a student (busy Class D).

 

[Jim K]

I've had two. The first west of st louis, engine began surging. Turned out to be an intermittently falling magneto.
https://www.pilotsofamerica.com/community/threads/my-first-aog.133568/

Second was more serious. Engine decided to pump all it's oil out onto the windshield. Fortunately there was an airport nearby, and it continued to produce power all the way, so the landing was fairly normal other than the visibility issue. This was the only time I actually said "mayday". I was on an ifr flight plan with a fairly busy Atlanta approach sector, and needed to get her attention.
https://www.pilotsofamerica.com/com...-most-expensive-way-to-get-to-florida.136647/

Both of those happened with my whole family on board.

I've also had two that were declared for me by atc. The first was a failure to get 3 green lights on the second flight after I bought the thing. Bad microswitch, no big deal, although it was entertaining to be chased by the fire truck. The second was an alternator failure. I was ifr in vmc and told the controller I had to return and to cancel ifr; she apparently thought it was a bigger deal than I did and called the airport manager to tell him he had an emergency aircraft inbound.

That was all in the first two years of owning my plane. The alternator was not quite a year ago, and she's been behaving herself pretty well since then.

 

[kayoh190]

Engine shutdowns in a Cessna 340 and a Cessna 421, a hydraulic system failure in an MD-80, and a flap system failure in an Embraer 190.

 

[MauleSkinner]

The first was 1984 and a engine fire at 14,000' over NM in a C-401, didn't have time to declare, landed in a hurry, plane was totaled, no one got a scratch.

Craig tells a better story, though.

 

[EdFred]

Luckily all my issues have happened on the ground. Other than the smoke in the cockpit - but I wasn't talking to ATC at the time, so no declaration.

 

[Sluggo63]

A couple emergencies:
Engine fire indication in a KC-135E immediately after takeoff leaving Incirlik AB for RAF Mildenhall (heavyweight), shut the engine down, dumped fuel and landed. Turned out to be a false fire light.
Again, KC-135, loss of the right hydraulic system.
KC-135 battery thermal runway with smoke coming back from an air refueling over Iraq. Landed at Riyadh mil (our base).

Declared a PAN, PAN, PAN for trailing edge flap malfunction in a 757 on approach to Birmingham, UK.

 

[tspear]

Twice. Once in an SR20 I was flying under a cloud layer. The clouds started to come down, OAT dropped fast... I started to rapidly pick up ice to the point in about 30 seconds waiting for ATC to respond I could not see out the windshield, Richmond did not want me to descend and maintain altitude. I said nope, I am declaring an emergency and I am I headed down a few thousand feet till OAT is 5C or higher. ATC paused for a couple seconds and another voice came on and started to route the airliners around me (the had me initially flying above the approach path for the airlines).

Second time was soon after takeoff on a 20 minute flight out of Knoxville to my home base at the time. Finished the climb, in IMC and very heavy rain I suddenly lost oil pressure indication on the right engine, soon followed by EGT and CHT climbing very fast. I shutdown the engine, made an uneventful landing at home on one engine. Mechanic found the issue, sensor wire had chaffed and shorted, when it shorted it also shorted the grounding harness for the CHT/EGT probes.

Tim

 

[Chip Sylverne]

Twice. Loss of oil pressure on an IFR flightplan over the Chesapeake Bay. Informed ATC I needed to divert to MTN, they asked why. Told them no oil pressure, they declared for me, gave me priority. They asked for a descent, told them unable, I want to remain as high as possible for as long as possible. Shut down the engine short final and glided in. They rolled equipment, presumably for practice. Told the airport manager what happened, total non issue.

Second time was to an uncontrolled airport in Georgetown KY. ATC asked I call them when on the ground. Again, non issue.

I believe ATC would rather you declare than not.

 

[Velocity173]

Landing gear got stuck up on the Velocity and declared with Savannah approach. Was able to get it down but it snapped the retraction cable in the process.

Multiple other things that were emergency procedures (chip lights engine fire lights, stab fail, etc) but either wasn’t in contact with ATC to declare or it wasn’t necessary to declare to get priority / assistance.

 

[murphey]

Young Eagle flight, kid in front started reverse peristalsis. Fortunately, mom was in back seat and I always have plenty of barf bags. (We buy them by the case for rallys) Called our tower, tower said straight in, everyone else (we're all monitoring tower during a rally) got out of the way.

This is about as exciting as I want.

Upholstery was only a year old....oh well.

 

[Jeff Oslick]

Had an old Northstar GPS blow a capacitor and a little smoke was coming out of the top of the panel. I was only a few minutes from landing at my home field and had just established radio contact with tower. I was 95% sure I knew the cause and it wasn't going to be a big deal, but I called the tower to tell them I was turning off my avionics due to smoke in the cockpit; I was immediately cleared to land "any runway".

 

[Fearless Tower]

Only declared once.

I was flying the T6 back to Norfolk from Pascagoula. While flying across southern Georgia, all of the sudden the engine starts shaking and I lost about 10” of manifold pressure.

Got my attention right quick!

I was VFR not talking to anyone, but had IAD dialed in. So I immediately hit 7700 on the xpdr and broadcast a Mayday. No response from ATC, but another aircraft heard me and started to relay.

I had just read a T6 accident report involving a blower failure and thought that might be what I was experiencing. I still had some power, but had no idea how long it would last.

I saw Lawson AAF (Ft Benning) off my right wing and was about to make a 90 degree turn and land there when I caught visual of Columbus (CSG) about the same distance on the nose.

I never did make contact with Atlanta Approach, but managed to dial up CSG tower and they were ready for me and cleared me straight in. I made the runway and as soon as I turned off the runway the field was overcome by a torrential downpour.

Let’s just say my legs were shaking when I **** down on the ramp…

 

[Randomskylane]

Smoke in cockpit, could not see out, constant coughing, thought I’d have to land at cape Canaveral. Turned off electric, landed somewhere else. Turned out radio was cooked

arcing and smoke in cockpit a mile or two after takeoff, turned off electric and fortunately my buddy had a handheld and got permission to go back (SFRA)

partial panel on approach, in imc, used iPad for AI. Do not recommend.

 

[Dave Theisen]

Medical emergency. 14 year old passenger had a seizure. I had just been cleared direct Marsh Harbour and about 20 miles off the coast. Declared and was vectored back to MLB. On the ground in less than ten minutes with ATC coordinated an ambulance to meet us. All worked out well.

 

[schmookeeg]

January. I noticed smoke streaming from behind the left prop that I could not explain, and decided it was "nothing good", so declared and shut it down pre-emptively. Was just about to cross the rockies too (of course ) I actually really hesitated in declaring since I was at 13,500 and had a familiar field about 7nm away. I was most averse to having a fed critter up in my business, but then better sense prevailed, and I declared the emergency -- I wanted to get service and attention from ABQ Center if things deteriorated further.

The fed who reached out to bother me was given a copy of my ASRS report and never contacted me again.

I was right, it was "nothing good"

It turned out that Western Skyways had been supplied a mis-labeled camshaft for my new engine from the clowns at Continental. Amazingly, even though I landed at an airport with no services or transportation options, they drove a dude down, removed the motor, took it back to their shop, and had a built-up replacement motor ready in a few weeks which they then drove back and reinstalled on the ramp for me. I basically left them the keys and came back for it when they were done. And even though Continental hosed us both, not a cent out of pocket on the warranteed engine.

They also discovered a nick in my newly overhauled propeller and had that blade replaced at their expense. I had overlooked it.

They earned a customer for life on that deal. I think the plane would still be sitting on a sad and lonely ramp if I had to manage the logistics myself. There weren't even ubers available -- I had to phone a favor in from a pilot buddy 100mi away to get a ride outta there.

I'm glad that I declared, even though it was a nothingburger in the end. ABQ didn't even seem to mind, and the controller helpfully called ahead to the FBO for me, and that resulted in a very handy tug to the ramp when I couldn't taxi anymore with one out.

 

[Tantalum]

I posted about it here, last summer a pin came out of the main gear on retraction and caused the Duchess left main gear to get wedged in the well. Gear would not come down with normal nor the emergency extension. I was the only pilot in the aircraft and had out of town non english speaking relatives in the plane

Declared, flew a nice long smooth final, kissed the ground with the right main gear and kept the left wing flying until about 30 knots. Kept it on the runway.

 

[MauleSkinner]

partial panel on approach, in imc, used iPad for AI. Do not recommend.

Don’t recommend partial panel or the iPad backup?

 

[tspear]

@schmookeeg

I had FSDO calls after both my declares. What was interesting to me was both calls, started with asking if everyone on board was ok, and was there any negative aspects they can help with in terms of passengers. After that, they asked what happened, I gave the basic info above. For the engine, they asked for the mechanic to give them a ring or to send in a copy of the log entry so they can officially close it out. For Richmond, he said ATC was not on the ball and should have rerouted me early since they already had an icing report in that area at my altitude a few minutes before.

Tim

 

[Tantalum]

I'm loving the successful single engine twin ops stories here!! Really helps kill that stupid phrase "bUt a TwiN OnLY FlIEs yOU tO tHe ScenE of the AcCident"

 

[Eric Pauley]

I'm loving the successful single engine twin ops stories here!! Really helps kill that stupid phrase "bUt a TwiN OnLY FlIEs yOU tO tHe ScenE of the AcCident"

Also keep in mind that there is literal survivor bias here. The unsuccessful stories are on Kathryn’s Report.

 

[Tantalum]

^that goes both ways, most people only hear about the accidents. Some VMC role accident that makes it in the news "see I told you so! twins aren't safe" without a real datapoint against all the successful, competently flown engine out landings

 

[tspear]

^that goes both ways, most people only hear about the accidents. Some VMC role accident that makes it in the news "see I told you so! twins aren't safe" without a real datapoint against all the successful, competently flown engine out landings

The only data of which there is sufficient quantity and quality is the fact that a non-proficient twin driver is less safe. Otherwise, there is insufficient information to accurately argue the point in either direction.

Tim

 

[Tantalum]

At least for GA, yes. But in the commercial world (which obviously has extremely proficient crews), there we have lots of data on inflight shutdowns. Just about all of which end up as non-events. But apples:chairs comparing a Seneca to an A320

But yes, proficiency is the wild card

 

[Zeldman]

I'm loving the successful single engine twin ops stories here!! Really helps kill that stupid phrase "bUt a TwiN OnLY FlIEs yOU tO tHe ScenE of the AcCident"

Cessna 414, at night and departing Albuquerque. Climbing through 11,000 msl I notice the right engine showing ''0'' oil pressure. So I humor the gauge and shut down and secure the engine. I was still with departure so I declared and returned to ABQ. Normal one engine inop landing and I was able to keep the speed up so I could taxi to parking. The only problem I had was our POI (principal operations inspector) was a little upset that I did not write it up in the aircraft discrepancy log book immediately. I wrote it up the next day with assistance from the director of maintenance.

There was a number of times in Alaska flying the Navajo I landed with one gear down and locked light not lit. Everytime it was a micro switch that stuck because of the muddy runway conditions in the villages. One time a fed just happened to be in town and heard my call on the radio to the on field FSS. He actually met me on the runway after stopping, and we both went under the plane and checked the J hook on the offending gear leg. After we both confirmed the gear was locked, I cranked up and taxied back to our terminal. In that 20 minutes to crank up, taxi and park, the fed had a report on what happened and I signed it (with approval of the chief pilot) acknowledging the facts of the emergency. And that is all I heard from that one. The other times I never heard a thing from the FAA.


One note.....everytime the trucks rolled out for me, I made sure to get out of the plane as quickly as feasible and introduce myself to the responders and thank them for their help.

 

[Vance Breese]

Just after ATC had extended our downwind to clear a twin for takeoff with a pilot under instruction in the front seat of my tandem gyroplane flying the engine coughed once and stopped. I was just about a half mile from the threshold at 550 feet above the ground with a three to one glide ratio; (rotorcraft pattern altitude is 500 feet below light fixed wing pattern altitude).

I keyed the mike and announced “ Gyroplane 142 Mike Golf; Mayday, Mayday, Mayday!”

I told the pilot under instruction; “I have the aircraft controls” and he was quick to respond.

We were just slightly above best glide speed. As I began to maneuver for the return to the airport I had him check the switches and controls and gave him instruction on a restart. We were not successful.

The light twins takeoff clearance was canceled and we were cleared to land anywhere on airport property.

After the twins pilot had acknowledged the cancelation of his takeoff clearance I repeated my clearance; “Gyroplane Two Mike Golf cleared to land anywhere on airport property.”

How many souls on board? What is the nature of your Emergency?

“Two souls on board and the engine has stopped; unable to restart.”

I turned gently and headed direct to the numbers at best glide speed and much to my surprise I made the runway and touched down as nice as could be just beyond the threshold markings demonstrating a 4.8 to one glide ratio.

The fire department was rolling up and they helped me push the gyroplane off the runway after my rotor stopped.

My learner initially thought it was just a demonstration of how to handle an emergency.

For most of the rest of the day I received multiple calls from friends that had heard of the “gyroplane crash” on the emergency frequency.

It turned out to be a fuel vent problem and after a note from the FBO that they had gone through the fuel system and concurred with my assessment that it was a fuel vent problem the nice lady from the NTSB closed the file.

From the call to touch down took less than a half minute so I did not have time to feel afraid.

I was mostly concerned with the safety of my learner and was rehearsing what I would say to him about an emergency exit once we had come to rest. We had thoroughly briefed emergency procedures before the flight but of course they change based on the specifics of the emergency and I don’t expect him to remember them in an actual emergency.

It is nice to imagine all the emergency engine outs I have practiced and taught may have had value when the engine went quiet.

I continue to teach three to one glide ratio as I have not found a way to extend a glide and a little head wind can shorten the glide a lot at 47kts ias.

 

[Tantalum]

Cessna 414, at night and departing Albuquerque. Climbing through 11,000 msl I notice the right engine showing ''0'' oil pressure. So I humor the gauge and shut down and secure the engine. I was still with departure so I declared and returned to ABQ. Normal one engine inop landing and I was able to keep the speed up so I could taxi to parking. The only problem I had was our POI (principal operations inspector) was a little upset that I did not write it up in the aircraft discrepancy log book immediately. I wrote it up the next day with assistance from the director of maintenance.

There was a number of times in Alaska flying the Navajo I landed with one gear down and locked light not lit. Everytime it was a micro switch that stuck because of the muddy runway conditions in the villages. One time a fed just happened to be in town and heard my call on the radio to the on field FSS. He actually met me on the runway after stopping, and we both went under the plane and checked the J hook on the offending gear leg. After we both confirmed the gear was locked, I cranked up and taxied back to our terminal. In that 20 minutes to crank up, taxi and park, the fed had a report on what happened and I signed it (with approval of the chief pilot) acknowledging the facts of the emergency. And that is all I heard from that one. The other times I never heard a thing from the FAA.


One note.....everytime the trucks rolled out for me, I made sure to get out of the plane as quickly as feasible and introduce myself to the responders and thank them for their help.

That's great, love reading real world stories like this. The kind of stuff I wish Flying did more of, but that's for another thread

Landing at L35 (Big Bear) with the Aztec after a weekend camping trip in Furnace Creek the left main gear down light extinguished somewhere on roll out. I noticed it as I taxied off the runway. Fearing an imminent gear failure I shut down and we all got out. A local came over and we checked things out. He had a little golf cart and brought a jack from his hangar. After securing the plane at the left jack point we crawled underneath. The overcenter was definitely in place and mechanically things were in order. The Aztec hydraulic gear is fairly fail safe. After looking more closely we saw the little electric switch was thickly caked in gunk. You couldn't really cycle the switch. Picking away at it with a pocket tool to free the gunk got the green light back on. The goo was so thick we think what likely happened the vibrations on roll out tricked the switch.

That was an odd one!

After my gear up in the Duchess there was minimal "paperwork" - a phone call and an email and that was it. Everyone was friendly and I found the whole process benign, and yes I thanked the guys who were there and ready

 

[Zeldman]

That's great, love reading real world stories like this.

Then you will love this one....

One night departing Albuquerque around 3am. I will be off duty when I get home and I am ready to crawl into my nice warm bed. I climb up to 14.5, level off and set the A/P for the 35 minute trip home. I sit back, enjoying the calm air and absolutely clear night. Except for a bright light in the cockpit. Man, that light is bright. I tried the rheostat, but that did not change a thing. I finally cover the light with my hand. I better investigate that light so I can write it up. So bright, so annoying. I move my hand to see what the light is, 3 lights actually, those 3 bright green lights......

 

[MajorTurbulence]

Mine were nothing burgers compared the preceding collection. While on an IFR flight in VMC just west of Cleveland, with a recently rebuilt engine, I noticed the engine had seemed to suddenly reduce power. I declared and got a vector to a small airport. But while flying and seemingly maintaining altitude I spotted a more favorable airport from a services perspective and turned to keep that in gliding distance. As I got closer to that strip, and after checking everything I could, things were stable so I increased throttle and airspeed without a hiccup. I thought maybe I got carb ice that was now gone, or my throttle control may have slipped its friction lock. Funny thing was ATC never acknowledged the emergency call, and when I cancelled it and decided to proceed to destination about 45 minutes more, they continued to say nothing. Nothing was ever found to be a problem.

The second time, I think ATC called it for me. There were walls of towering cumulus around but ATC was happy to leg me know of a Saratoga with a Stormscope who was just ahead of me and successfully getting through on his routing. This was about 1998 and I was not well equipped for weather avoidance. I was getting anxious about all the TCU and paid particular attention to my headings changes and time for each change. I asked ATC for help with any local airfields to descend toward but none existed around the Badlands east of Rapid City. I thought to myself that proceeding was crazy and told them I’m turning around. I followed the reverse path I mentally noted despite ATC saying that my selected path was right where convective activity was. Having just attended a seminar on how poor Center ATC’s weather radar equipment was during that time period, I didn’t believe their warnings as they seemingly led me in the predicament in the first place about following the other aircraft. Well, even after penetrating very short lived cumulus without much turbulence, finally got in the clear between walls of TCU on either side, now outrunning the weather and headed to Mitchell Nebraska for the night, with a hanger to shelter my plane from the expected hail. Interesting to me was that a Police car was waiting for my arrival.(maybe not so nothing burger experience after all as it could have been catastrophic)

 

[flyingron]

My engine "blowed up" as we say in NASCAR. ATC was pretty cool about it. I was able to reach them on the ground (in a field south LYH) and let them know I was uninjured.

 

[kyleb]

I'm loving the successful single engine twin ops stories here!! Really helps kill that stupid phrase "bUt a TwiN OnLY FlIEs yOU tO tHe ScenE of the AcCident"

The folks who had a bad outcome can't post anymore...

 

[Pugs]

Don’t recommend partial panel or the iPad backup?

Either I think. The iPad will work and potentially make a partial or zero panel IMC less of a big deal but be sure and practice with it before you need it. It's a very different reaction than the full panel and I'd certainly declare an emergency.

Declared several emergencies in my Navy career, rapid decompression at 40K (and then a vertical decent lower) multiple single engine approaches, ice in the Cascades with ATC not will to let us descend out of it (the fighting drumstick had no airframe anti-ice), bird strikes, hydraulic failures sort of stuff. None of them ever made me pull the lower handle and declaring an emergency made sure that ATC didn't try and do anything dumb and gave us priority. When in doubt, declare.

 

[Fearless Tower]

I'm loving the successful single engine twin ops stories here!! Really helps kill that stupid phrase "bUt a TwiN OnLY FlIEs yOU tO tHe ScenE of the AcCident"

While I’ve never had to shut down an engine on a twin in anger, your comment made me think of the many times I had had issues flying a twin that were non-events, but if they had happened when flying a single I would definitely have declared.

 

[bluesky74656]

Towards the end of a relatively long flight, my wife comes on the headset from the back seat and tells me my son was losing consciousness and she couldn’t keep him awake. We had been cruising between 9 and 11 thousand, but I think the combination of altitude, heat and dehydration was too much for him. I got a descent from ATC, but he wasn’t coming out of it and my wife said she was coordinating with my parents on the ground to find the nearest emergency room to take him to, which was not close to the small airport we were landing at. At that point I decided to divert to a nearby class D with emergency services on the field and asked approach to alert them to roll an ambulance. They spun multiple business jets off the approach for me, and the ambulance met me on the ramp. He ended up being fine, but we are much more careful with altitude now, especially on hot days.

 

[Initial Fix]

Once so far. The gear wouldn’t come down. Got cleared to try and sort it with a manual extension. Then tower flyby to ensure it was down. And they rolled the trucks just in case. Turned out to be a failing gear motor.

 

[Pinecone]

At least for GA, yes. But in the commercial world (which obviously has extremely proficient crews), there we have lots of data on inflight shutdowns. Just about all of which end up as non-events. But apples:chairs comparing a Seneca to an A320

But yes, proficiency is the wild card

Exactly. turbines are easy. One fails, push all the levers as far forward as you can, then, when you have time, figure things out.

Piston twin needs a lot more things done and done right.

 

[Shawn]

Only once when Foreflight crashed when iPad overheated...