# Pilot declares emergency (to get his way?)  Any repercusions?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pilot-declares-emergency-to-get-his-way-any-repercusions/855223>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 8, 2020, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pilot-declares-emergency-to-get-his-way-any-repercusions/855223 "2020-06-08T01:01:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pilot-declares-emergency-to-get-his-way-any-repercusions/855223/61 "2020-06-12T14:27:14Z")

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> [@Saint\_Cad](#):
>
> And secondly if a pilot calls an emergency just to get priority but there really was no emergency what happens?

I’ve declared an emergency once, but it was on behalf of another aircraft. I was assisting a pilot who had lost his engine, he was busy aviating, and I made the decision to declare for him with ATC. He landed his aircraft safely and as far as I know there was no investigation or paperwork of any kind. I was given a number to call, but it turned out it was the ATC facility itself and they just thanked me for helping.

This goes with the advice I was always given, which was never hesitate to declare an emergency if something is going bad. I first encountered this at a seminar at which the speaker asked everyone in the room who had ever declared an emergency to raise their hand. About a dozen or so people did, at which point he said, "Keep your hand up if you had to submit paperwork afterward. " Every hand went down. Now these were general aviation pilots, not professionals, but I thought it was a good point.

But I think you’re asking about a pilot frivolously and intentionally declaring when there isn’t a good reason. I have no doubt a pilot doing so would face consequences, professional or not. I still don’t think there’s a reason to think that in this case. In my mind this is mainly about a conflict of interest between a crew and ATC, the crew solved it a bit heavy handedly maybe, but they were not necessarily wrong to do it.

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