What Is the First Action a Pilot Should Take When Faced With Any Emergency in Flight?

The Most Important Three Words in Aviation

When something goes wrong in the cockpit, the instinct to panic or immediately start problem-solving can override the most critical action of all: flying the airplane. The FAA's Airplane Flying Handbook (FAH-H-8083-3) addresses this directly in its Emergency Procedures chapter under General Emergency Philosophy, and it distills decades of accident data into a simple, memorable priority order — aviate, navigate, communicate.

These three words represent the correct sequence of actions in any emergency situation, regardless of what has failed. Whether you are dealing with an engine roughness, a electrical failure, or a pressurization problem, the hierarchy never changes. Master this concept before your checkride and you will have a rock-solid answer to one of the most fundamental questions a Designated Pilot Examiner can ask.

Aviate: Control the Aircraft Above All Else

The first priority — aviate — means maintaining aircraft control. Specifically, it means holding a safe airspeed, keeping the wings level, and maintaining a stable attitude. An aircraft that is out of controlled flight cannot be saved by any checklist, any radio call, or any amount of cockpit heroics. Control comes first, every single time.

This sounds obvious when you are sitting on the ground reading about it, but in the air, under stress, with an unfamiliar problem developing rapidly, the instinct to immediately reach for the checklist is surprisingly strong. Many student pilots have been trained to associate emergencies with checklists, which is not wrong — checklists are essential — but the sequence matters enormously. Before you touch a single item on an emergency checklist, the aircraft must be stabilized. Trim for best glide if the engine has quit. Establish a controlled descent if you need to. Get the airplane flying predictably, and then work the problem.

A Designated Pilot Examiner will want to hear you articulate this clearly. Saying something like, 'The first thing I do is ensure I have aircraft control and a safe airspeed — I fly the airplane before anything else,' demonstrates exactly the kind of sound aeronautical decision-making the checkride is designed to evaluate.

Navigate, Then Communicate — In That Order

Once the aircraft is under control and flying safely, the second priority is to navigate. This means deciding where to go. Are you close enough to an airport to make an emergency landing there? Is there a suitable field below you? What heading gets you to the nearest safe option? These are questions that only make sense to answer once you are not in immediate danger of losing control of the aircraft.

Communication comes third. Declaring an emergency on 121.5 or with your current ATC facility is important — controllers can clear airspace, alert emergency services, and provide vectors to the nearest runway — but none of that helps if the airplane is in an uncontrolled descent while you are busy keying the mic. A surprisingly common mistake is treating the radio call as the first priority. Some pilots, especially those who are very ATC-oriented from their training environment, instinctively want to tell someone what is happening before they have stabilized the situation. The AFH is unambiguous: communicate last.

It is also worth noting that communicating with ATC is not always possible or necessary to survive an emergency. Pilots have successfully handled engine failures, electrical failures, and other serious in-flight emergencies without ever making a single radio call. The airplane does not care whether ATC knows about your problem. Flying it does.

Why Practicing Emergency Scenarios Builds the Habits That Save Lives

Knowing the aviate-navigate-communicate framework intellectually is a starting point, but the real goal is to internalize it so thoroughly that it becomes automatic under stress. This is why your flight instructor has you practice emergency landings, simulate engine failures, and run through emergency checklists repeatedly — not just to memorize the steps, but to build the muscle memory and decision-making patterns that activate when the pressure is on.

One of the most dangerous outcomes in an actual emergency is freezing — taking no action at all while the situation deteriorates. Pilots who have rehearsed emergency scenarios are dramatically less likely to freeze because their training gives them a mental script to follow. The moment something goes wrong, the trained response kicks in: fly the airplane first. Everything else follows from that.

On your oral exam, your DPE is not just checking whether you know the words. They want to see that you understand why this priority order exists, and that you would actually apply it correctly under pressure. Explain the reasoning, not just the acronym, and you will demonstrate the kind of aeronautical decision-making that earns a passing grade.

If you want to practice questions like this in a realistic oral exam format, try SimulatedCheckride.com.