Definition
Visual, aural, or tactile alerts presented to the pilot by aircraft systems to indicate a status, caution, warning, or advisory condition. Annunciations appear on annunciator panels, primary flight displays, multifunction displays, or as discrete lights, tones, and voice callouts, and are typically color- and tone-coded by severity (e.g., red for warning, amber for caution).
Plain English
Signals from the aircraft — lights, messages, beeps, or spoken alerts — that tell the pilot something needs attention, ranging from a simple status note to an urgent problem.
Context Anchor
Seen or heard in the cockpit when a system displays a message, turns on a light, or makes a sound to get the pilot’s attention.
Derivation
From Latin annuntiare, meaning 'to announce' or 'make known.' An annunciation is literally the aircraft announcing something to the pilot.
Why Pilots Care
Clear annunciations help a pilot notice and respond to problems quickly, but too many at once can contribute to sensory overload.
Grounding Statement
If several lights and sounds appear at the same time during a busy moment, those annunciations are all competing for the pilot’s attention.
Intuition Check
Do not think of annunciations as only spoken announcements. In aviation, annunciations can be lights, messages, tones, or other signals from the airplane.
Example Sentence 1
During the climb, an amber annunciation appeared on the display, alerting the pilot to low fuel pressure.
Example Sentence 2
During an abnormal situation, several annunciations illuminated at once and required careful prioritization.