David Cartwright writes:

Well, it happened to me (and presumably everyone else) on my PPL radio exam.
Actually, what I mean is that the "PAN" part of the oral exam involved me
supposedly spotting a life-raft in the water below me and reporting it to
ATC via a PAN call.

I didn't know you could make a PAN call for another aircraft. I thought PAN
and MAYDAY only applied to your own aircraft. I guess it makes sense to have
some sort of special call you can make, and PAN is probably the more
reasonable of the two, since you aren't actually in danger yourself.

I've never had something like this for real, but there was one occasion when
I knew an instructor from our club was considering sending someone on a solo
navex in a particular area, and once I got airborne for my own flight I saw
that the conditions differed markedly from the forecast/actuals report. I
asked ATC to relay a message to the club to say that the weather down there
wasn't up to a solo student on a navex, which they kindly did.

There are transcripts of ATC traffic when aircraft have gone down and others
have observed it. Most of the time other pilots are pretty calm, although
there might be a certain tenseness to their voice when they see the aircraft
hit the water or ground. The greatest departure from the norm I've heard or
read in such transcripts was after TWA 800 exploded, when one pilot said "God
bless 'em."

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