Definition
Information issued by ATC to a pilot in an emergency situation, drawn from the Emergency Obstruction Video Map (EOVM), about terrain and obstruction clearance to assist the pilot in maintaining safe altitudes when normal published procedures cannot be used.
Plain English
Help from the controller during an emergency, telling the pilot what altitudes are safe to fly to avoid hitting terrain or obstacles in that area.
Context Anchor
Seen in discussions of the Emergency Obstruction Video Map, where a controller may use obstacle information to help a pilot during an emergency.
Derivation
‘Advisory’ comes from the Latin advisare, meaning ‘to consider’ or ‘to give counsel.’ An emergency advisory is exactly that: counsel given during an emergency. It is information offered to help the pilot decide, not a clearance or instruction the pilot must follow.
Why Pilots Care
Gives the pilot immediate, actionable terrain and obstruction information at a moment when visual references or normal navigation may be lost.
Intuition Check
Do not read “advisory” as unimportant just because it is not a command. In this context, an emergency advisory is urgent safety information, but the pilot still has to decide how to use it.
Example Sentence 1
After declaring an emergency descent, the crew received emergency advisories from ATC giving safe altitudes clear of the surrounding mountainous terrain.
Example Sentence 2
The pilot followed the emergency advisories and climbed to the minimum safe altitude provided by ATC.