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Originally Posted by Gabriel
"PAN PAN, Jetphotos 1234
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*Off-topic* So I was curious about the origin of "PAN PAN PAN" and looked it up. It comes from a French word (not for "bread", which is kind of what I thought it sounds like), but for mechanical failure. The article went on to explain that various
bacronyms have been applied to PAN, such as "Possible Assistance Needed". Well, I had never heard of a bacronym before, either, so this was a learning experience (a bacronym is when you come up with suitable words for the word that already exists). Then came the most interesting part. The article listed uses of PAN PAN PAN in modern aviation, and one of them was from May 5th of this year. I hadn't heard about this incident, and I'm not sure if there's a thread here or not - I don't see it if there is. But here's the summary, kind of funny in a scary sort of way:
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An Air Berlin Airbus A330-200, registration D-ALPA performing flight AB-9721 from Palma Mallorca,SP (Spain) to Munich (Germany), was on approach to Munich about 15 minutes prior to landing, when the crew declared PAN PAN reporting they were fatigued and needed to perform an automatic landing. The airport needed to temporarily invoke procedures to protect the ILS category III zones to permit an automatic landing. The aircraft continued for a safe landing on runway 26L about 15 minutes later at 10:27L (08:27Z).
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(From Aviation Herald)
Too tired to land the plane? That's a new one.
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