In September 1998 , Swissair Flight 111 used the call during an emergency landing request following a fume event , which turned out to be an electrical fire that subsequently destroyed the aircraft . Also , in the wake of Avianca Flight 52 , the call is frequently used to denote situations where fuel is getting low for given conditions , but not yet at a critical emergency state . Qantas Flight QF-74 used the call " pan pan pan " when it had an engine failure on its fourth engine soon after take off from San Francisco . Qantas Flight 72 ( QF-72 ) issued a pan-pan when the aircraft experienced rapid , uncommanded movements in which the plane dropped several hundred feet without instruction from the flight crew . Several passengers and crew suffered major and minor injuries , and so the call was upgraded to " mayday "
Avianca Flight 52
Avianca Flight 52
Pan-pan