An Urgency (more commonly known as a Pan Pan) situation is:
“When the station has an urgent message to transmit concerning the safety of the ship, aircraft or person. It is used where there is no imminent danger to the ship or person and immediate assistance is NOT required or fully justified”
LEARN: Before the course, make sure you know this definition.
In this situation we send a Urgency announcements followed by a Pan Pan Call and Message. The sheet below highlights the procure step-by-step.
Urgency Message (Urgency Announcement)
On the Icom this is done as follows:
– Press MENU
– Scroll using the ARROWS to All Ships Call
– Press ENTER
– Scroll using the ARROWS to Urgency
– Press ENTER
– Press ENTER again to confirm
– the Announcement has been sent.
If this does not make it clear, see the video below (DO NOT DO THIS ON A NORMAL RADIO):
The announcements is a digital message which includes your MMSI number but NOT your position. If you have filled in a CG66, any UK coastguard station that receives your announcements will be able to cross-reference your MMSI with the details you supplied. See the Licensing and Registration page for more details.
Once the announcement is sent you should wait approximate 10 seconds for the announcement to be acknowledged and for people to grab a pencil (continue at this point regardless of whether the call is acknowledged).
The announcement is followed up by a verbal Pan Pan call and message.
Example 1:
A Pan Pan message may be used to request medical advice for a non-life threatening condition. Note: in this situation some information, which is normally included, may not be required.
PANPAN, PANPAN, PANPAN
All Stations, All Stations, All Stations
This is Sailing Yacht Lala, Lala, Lala
MMSI 235899995
My position 49°43’.82N 002°56’.15W
I have an injured crew member and request urgent medical advice.
Over
Example 2:
In this situation a Pan Pan call is made to request a tow in the case of engine failure. Note: that engine failure on its own may not be a Urgency situation as there may be no danger and simple solutions such as anchoring. However, it does depend on the situation.
PANPAN, PANPAN, PANPAN
All Stations, All Stations, All Stations
This is Tinky Winky, Tinky Winky, Tinky Winky
MMSI 235899996
My position is 500 37.5N 0000 54.6W
Engine failure. Require a tow.
Four persons on board
We are a blue 24 foot motor vessel
Over
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