Every single emergency procedure you can imagine should follow the basic outline of “aviate, navigate, communicate” on the pilot’s side of things, but what does ATC do? It’s actually kind of backwards. We communicate with you first to find out what you might need, then we navigate other conflicting airplanes out of your way so that you can aviate to a safe runway or landing site.
It should be obvious that we never say the words, “Declare,” “Emergency,” “Mayday,” or “Pan-Pan” unless we indeed have a dire situation. These words have the potential to flip a controller’s airspace upside down faster than a Vmc roll, so they should be used with discretion. Even saying “Declare” by itself could lead us to believe that assistance is needed, as well as “Pan-Pan” (Urgent condition). Because Pan-Pan is considered an urgent condition (maybe not a full-blown emergency), it has the potential to turn into “Mayday” (Distress) so we mostly treat it as such.
