Mayday

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See: May Day for the May 1 celebration or Mayday (music) for the electronic music festival.

Mayday is an emergency code word used internationally as a distress signal, derived from the French M'aidez! (help me).

It is used to signal a life-threatening emergency by many groups, such as police forces, the fire brigade, and transport organisations such as London Underground [1].

Table of contents

1 Marine Mayday calls
2 How to make a Mayday call
3 Other urgent calls

3.1 Mayday relay
3.2 Pan Pan
3.3 Securite
3.4 Silence

4 See also
5 External links

Marine Mayday calls

The US Coast Guard definition of a Mayday situation is 'A vessel or aircraft are in grave and imminent danger and require immediate assistance', while the British Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) defines it as 'a situation where in the opinion of the Master a vessel, vehicle, aircraft or person is in grave and imminent danger and requires immediate assistance'. Examples of 'grave and imminent danger' in which a Mayday call would be appropriate are fire, explosion or sinking.

'Mayday' calls are made by radio, such as a ship or aircraft's VHF radio. Although a Mayday call will be understood irrespective of the radio frequency on which it is broadcast, first-line response organisations such as the coastguard and air-traffic-control monitor designated channels, such as VHF channel 16. A Mayday call is the equivalent of a morse code SOS, or a telephone call to the emergency services.

The lifeboat at Brixham, south Devon, UK

When they receive a Mayday call, the coastguard may launch lifeboats and helicopters to assist the ship which is in trouble. Other ships which are nearby may divert course to assist the vessel broadcasting the Mayday.

Making a hoax Mayday call is a criminal act in many countries, because of the danger to the rescuers' lives that a search-and-rescue operation can create, as well as the very high costs of such rescue efforts. In the US, making a false distress call is a federal crime carrying sanctions of up to six years imprisonment, and a fine of $250,000[1]. Hoax calls too, by their nature, devalue the use of the word Mayday, which rightly demands an instant and resource intensive response.

The coastguard can be contacted in situations that are not emergencies by calling 'Coastguard, Coastguard, Coastguard, this is (name of vessel)', on VHF channel 16. In many countries however, special training and a licence are required to use a VHF radio legally (though in an emergency situation, anyone may use a VHF to summon help).

If a Mayday call cannot be sent because a radio is not available, a variety of other distress signals and calls for help can be used. A Mayday can be sent on behalf on one vessel by another, using a convention called a Mayday Relay (see below).

How to make a Mayday call

You must not make a Mayday call unless there is a real emergency, such as fire or sinking, or you may put lives in danger!

Go to your VHF radio, switch it on, set power to High if you can
Select Channel 16 (156.8 MHz)
Press the microphone button (this might be labelled 'Push To Talk' or 'PTT')
Holding down the microphone button, say
- MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY
- THIS IS (your boat's name, repeated three times)
- MAYDAY (your boat's name)
- Your location (you could read out the position from your GPS, or say something like 'one mile north of xxx harbour'), repeated 3 times
- What is the emergency (for example, 'we are on fire' or 'we are sinking')
- The number of people on board (for example, '5 people on board')
- OVER
Then release the microphone button and wait for a response (this is very important, you cannot hear what the Coastguard are saying to you unless you release the button).
If you don't get a response after 10 seconds, repeat your mayday call.
As well as your Mayday call, use other distress signals such as flags, flares, lights, smoke, and waving both arms outstretched. Trigger your emergency position-indicating rescue beacon (EPIRB) if you have one.

Once you are in contact with the coastguard, you should listen carefully to the questions they ask you, which help them assess your situation and provide an appropriate rescue. Questions may include:

Description of your vessel
Details of any medical emergencies on board
The weather at your location
What emergency equipment you have (for example life jackets, flares, EPIRB, life raft).

The official way of making a mayday call is slightly different around the world, but all English-speaking countries will understand you if you do it as described above.

Other urgent calls

Mayday is one of a number of words used internationally as radio code words, to signal important information. Senders of urgency calls are entitled to interrupt messages of lower priority. As with Mayday, the use of these terms without proper cause could render the user liable to civil and/or criminal charges.

Each of these urgency calls is usually repeated three times (eg "Pan pan, Pan pan, Pan pan").

Seelonce Mayday or Seelonce Distress mean that the channel may only be used by the vessel in distress and the coastguard (and any other vessels they ask for assistance in handling the emergency). The channel may not be used for normal working traffic until 'seelonce feenee' is broadcast.

The expressions Stop Transmitting - Distress and Stop Transmitting - Mayday are the aeronautical equivalents of Seelonce Mayday.

Seelonce Feenee (French: silence fini - silence finished) means that the emergency situation has been concluded and the channel may now be used normally. The word prudonce (prudence caution) can also be used to allow restricted working to resume on that channel.

Distress Traffic Ended is the aeronautical equivalent of seelence feenee.