Mayday call ~ 2111z - Thursday 19/09/2013

[CoastGuardJon]

Last night whilst listening in to London ATC West (132.95), at around 2105z, I heard an aircraft call in (out of Exeter) call sign Quality 969E (not certain if that's the absolutely correct c/s) at FL160, requesting urgent clearance to descend to FL100, which was immediately granted and ATC instructed them to Dover reporting point and asked if they wished to declare an emergency (my first thought was that a passenger was taken bad - heart or breathing problem) - to which the reply was Negative at this time.   About 2111, they declared Mayday - which AFIK means a serious defect with the a/c itself.   They were granted immediate clearance to go direct to Gatwick LGW and emergency services would be alerted.   I think they were directed to fly over Mayfield?    They were then hand over to London ATC, and I heard no more - did anyone else hear anything, or does anyone know what the the emergency was, or what happened at LGW?

[CoastGuardJon]

Bump!   Does no-one know anything about this call?   Any suggestions as to where/how I could get further info please?

[EK01]

CoastGuardJon,

You could try this if LGW was involved. I am not a member myself but perhaps they may be of help or have some info on their web page.

http://www.gatwickaviationsociety.org.uk/introduction.asp

Ian

[tarbat]

Or try http://www.pprune.org

[CoastGuardJon]

Many thanks Ian and Chris, much appreciated - obviously got down safely (Thank Whoever and the Crew!) or we'd all have heard about it.   I see from Googling "Quality" as a/c call sign, it would've been a TNT cargo flight.   I'll have to research further whenI've got the time!

[EK01]

CoastGuardJon,

Your flight was TAY956E EC-LOF. Details found here under 'Visitors' :

http://www.gatwickaviationsociety.org.uk/dailylistings.asp

For some reason the correct date will not copy and paste but if you put in the date as the 20th of September, it gives details of the previous night of the 19th.
Regards,

Ian

[CoastGuardJon]

Hi Ian, Thank you so much for coming up with that, I'm most grateful for that information, although there's no information as to the actual emergency, but now I've got the registration.     CoastguardJon

[EK01]

My pleasure.

Ian