Inflight Emergencies: The Order of Operations That Actually Matters
Most inflight emergencies aren't dramatic. They're a rough-running engine, an electrical smell, a door that pops open on climbout. What actually determines the outcome isn't the emergency itself nearly as much as whether the pilot works it in the right order.
Aviate, Navigate, Communicate
This is the oldest priority list in aviation for a reason: it works, and it works precisely because it's easy to get backwards under stress. The instinct when something goes wrong is often to reach for the radio first. Resist it. Flying the airplane always comes before anything else — that means establishing and holding the correct attitude and airspeed before you do anything else at all.
Only once the airplane is under control and trimmed does navigating matter: where can you actually go from here, and is there someplace better to be headed toward. Communication comes last, not because it's unimportant, but because a controller on the other end of the radio can't fly your airplane for you. A garbled, panicked call made while the airspeed is decaying helps no one. A calm call made after you've already got the airplane stabilized and a plan in mind is far more useful to both you and to ATC.
