Declaring an emergency

[SIUAv8r]

Hello,

We had an electrical problem (ammeter showing discharge) today while flying and diverted to another airport to get it checked out. The controller asked if we wanted to declare an emergency, and we said negative. When we came into land, he had the fire trucks waiting for us. When we got to the FBO the airport fire chief was waiting for us to fill out paperwork, which is required only for the fire department, so no big deal.

We called the tower to ask if there was any FAA paperwork we had to do, because we did not declare an emergency! We asked why he "rolled the trucks", he said he had the authority to declare an emergency for us if he felt it necessary. My question is, is this a typical thing for ATC to do? It wasnt like we were on fire or the gear was stuck.

Thank You.

 

[triple7]

was it a small airport? Maybe he felt that both he and the FD needed the practice....or maybe he was just a little trigger happy. I brought a plane in with no a/s indications and no altimeter.....No trucks for me :-(

 

[SIUAv8r]

It was a decent sized airport...alright, ill come out and say it. It was KHTS, Huntington Tri-State Airport in Huntington, WV. Not a small airport but it certainly is not busy. We were the only a/c on freq. at the time.

 

[Fox Xray]

I assume you were flying a small GA A/C ... GA pilots seem to hesitate more on declaring an emergency then their air carrier/corporate counterparts. This is in no way a slap against GA pilots, I think some of them just feel like they are bothering us by declaring, especially if the problem does not seem major, such as what happened to you.

Our view is that declaring an emergency is a tool and I have done it myself for pilots more then once. My job is to do what I can to help you out and I would feel a lot better about overreacting by rolling the fire trucks then watching something happen and regret not using a tool in my arsenal.

It's the old better safe then sorry...

Glad things were OK...

 

[SIUAv8r]

Yes, we were flying a C-210. I am not upset at the controller for declaring an emergency, I am more than grateful that ATC is there to help us out in a situation. I agree with you 100% about the old better safe than sorry saying. It just seemed odd to me that after I stated that I did not want to declare, the controller just went ahead and did it. I was unaware that ATC is allowed to do that.

Thank You for your reply. This ATC forum is a great addition to JC.

 

[Fox Xray]

I was unaware that ATC is allowed to do that.

If memory serves me (which is not 100%) 3 people can declare an emergency...

1. The PIC
2. ATC
3. The A/C operator / owner

I'll look it up to be sure.

 

[meritflyer]

What about the whole "Pan-Pan" thing?

 

[BobDDuck]

If memory serves me (which is not 100%) 3 people can declare an emergency...

1. The PIC
2. ATC
3. The A/C operator / owner

I'll look it up to be sure.

In the 121 world a dispatcher can declare for the PIC. It actually happended on a flight I was working. Strange to have ATC ask us to confirm that we were declaring when absolutly nothing was wrong. Turns out dispatch got the flight number wrong and meant to declare for another guy that went NRDO.

 

[MikeD]

It was a decent sized airport...alright, ill come out and say it. It was KHTS, Huntington Tri-State Airport in Huntington, WV. Not a small airport but it certainly is not busy. We were the only a/c on freq. at the time.

So YOU were that guy?????

 

[frog_flyer]

What about the whole "Pan-Pan" thing?

Careful when you go south of the border...

"BREAD BREAD BREAD!!"

 

[mtsu_av8er]

Careful when you go south of the border...

"BREAD BREAD BREAD!!"

LMFAO - perfect!

 

[SIUAv8r]

So YOU were that guy?????

LOL...

 

[pilotnate23]

If memory serves me (which is not 100%) 3 people can declare an emergency...

1. The PIC
2. ATC
3. The A/C operator / owner

I'll look it up to be sure.

Sounds right to me.

 

[launchpad]

I know at some smaller airports, the controllers and fire guys both like to get a little practice when they can. I've had a couple situations where I had to return to the field and they asked the same thing. I told them that I didn't have an urgent situation, but if they wanted to they could knock themselves out. One time, I landed with a low oil pressure indication and they rolled all the trucks and sprayed me down......it was quite refreshing.......