MAYDAY: it’s something we’ve heard a thousand times in movies and TV, and hopefully, never
once in real life.
When a grizzled sea captain is being tossed around by a storm, when a pilot’s plane
starts nosediving, or when an improbably attractive couple on a desert island, who have remained
[emphasis] improbably attractive after 1 month without hair styling products or showers,
find an abandoned radio transmitter: MAYDAY is the first thing to come out of their mouths.
But why do we say MAYDAY in an emergency?
When and how did this almost universal custom start?
Well, we were going to strand your favorite lab rat to find out, but decided the airfare
was too expensive.
So where does MAYDAY come from?
The word itself doesn’t seem to imply danger.
What’s more peaceful and beautiful than a gorgeous, sunny day in May?
If you didn’t know that this word was a distress call, it would probably conjure up
images of springtime, flowers, and sunshine.
Well, the word originates from the French word m’aidez, which translates to “Help
Me!”.
It first started being used in England in 1923, when the majority of UK airline traffic
was over the English Channel between England and France.
Stories credit Frederick Stanley Mockford with coining the phrase in English, though
some sources are unable to verify if he was the first person to use the word.
Mockford was a senior radio officer in Croydon Airport in London.
He was supposedly asked to think of a word that would be easily understood by all pilots
and ground staff on both the French and English side of the channel in case of an emergency.
Up until that point, SOS had been a pretty standard distress signal for ships at sea.
However, ships at the time mostly communicated telegraphically.
In Morse code, SOS was an easy pattern to both type out and decipher - three dots, three
dashes, three dots again.
However, airlines communicated mostly via radio.
Pilots soon realized that saying SOS on the radio, especially the more primitive radio
communications that existed then, could easily be misunderstood.
Why?
Because as everyone who has spent hours on the phone with customer service endlessly
repeating “S as in Sam” knows, the letter “S” is easily confused for several other
letters.
Which is why a famous pop singer is probably listed in some telemarketing records as “Fam
Fmith”.
Pilots in distress couldn’t really sit around repeating “S as in Sam” while their plane
was in danger of hurtling towards the ground, so a new word needed to be thought up.
That’s when Mockford, the Croydon Airport radio officer, decided to go with the French
version m’aidez, or according to some sources, m’aider - the former is the imperative form
of the verb, but they both sound just about the same.
Naturally, the English-speaking radio officers bastardized it for English use into “MAYDAY!”.
In addition to their cuisine and wine, this marks one of just a few times the French culturally
won out over the English.
After Mockford came up with this call, it spread so far beyond England and became so
popular that the US formally adopted “MAYDAY” as a radiotelegraph distress signal in 1927,
just four years later.
The formal article to adopt it was passed by the International Radiotelegraph Convention
in Washington.
Even a few years after its inception, the distress signal was being used by pilots as
far as Singapore.
Eventually, “MAYDAY” was made official by most international bodies in 1948.
So when should it be used?
Although it can be said in a variety of environments, it’s most often associated with naval and
air communications.
On these naval and air vessels, most governing bodies indicate that “MAYDAY” should be
used almost exclusively in life-threatening emergencies.
Furthermore, even the way the word is said can help authorities understand what is happening.
That’s right, there is a protocol to how this distress signal should be used.
When a pilot or captain feels there is an urgent, potentially fatal situation developing,
they usually get on the radio and yell out “MAYDAY” three times.
The call of “MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY” is issued to help ground control or operational
centers understand which ship or plane is the one in distress.
That’s because if radio communications fail or are out of range on a vessel in peril,
and nearby ships or planes observe one of their colleagues in distress, they might relay
a MAYDAY message in order to inform authorities that another unit is in danger.
Otherwise, they might be responding, addressing, or confirming a nearby MAYDAY situation if
they are able to assist.
So simply hearing the word “MAYDAY” come through on the radio, said only once, isn’t
an automatic sign that the ship or plane calling is also the one in trouble.
When one vessel sends a distress call on behalf of another ship, it’s called a “MAYDAY
relay”, a somewhat cute phrase for a very real life or death emergency.
Depending on the vessel one is operating and the country in which it is being operated,
there are also specific instructions on what information to relay after a “MAYDAY”
call.
The Federal Aviation Administration of the US, or FAA, usually encourages the following
format:
“MAYDAY, MAYDAY, MAYDAY: Name of station addressed; Aircraft call sign and type; Nature
of emergency; Weather; Pilot’s intentions or requests; Present position and heading,
or if lost, last known position and heading; Altitude or flight level; fuel remaining in
minutes; number of people on board; any other needed information”.
Because of the severity of a MAYDAY call, making a false call is usually punishable
by a fine or even imprisonment in some countries.
In the US, the punishment is up to a $250,000 fine or six years in jail!
That might sound harsh, but consider the fact that when a ship or plane sends out this distress
call, all resources and attention will be directed towards assisting that vessel.
Which means officers might end up neglecting other vessels in any kind of danger, or be
unable to assist other vessels to the extent they could otherwise.
In addition to time and energy, costly resources will also be diverted towards assisting or
finding the vessel issuing a MAYDAY call.
All this adds up to a lot of wasted time, manpower, and money if the call turns out
to be a hoax.
Moreover, once a pilot has declared an extreme emergency, many airspace regulations such
as speed and clearance limits are rendered moot, and the pilot is authorized to do almost
anything he deems necessary to correct the situation, as long as it doesn’t cause injury
or death to civilians on the ground.
Therefore, since the “MAYDAY” call also gives pilots great latitude in their actions,
it is reserved only for the most urgent of situations.
So what if a pilot has an emergency, but not one necessarily threatening the lives of everyone
on board?
Well, for lower-order emergencies, such as a mechanical failure or medical problem on
board, or poor weather, getting lost, and low - but not dangerously low - fuel, the
pilot will issue a distress call of “pan-pan”.
We would not be able to do that with a straight face.
Of course, it’s French as well, with panne meaning “breakdown”.
Anything that is not a, quote, “grave and imminent threat requiring immediate assistance”,
end quote, as indicated by most naval and airline handbooks, will get a “pan-pan”
instead of a “MAYDAY”.
One last related distress protocol is that if the “MAYDAY” situation is happening
on channels where other radio chatter and traffic are interfering, an order can be given
out to stop all other communication on the specific frequency until the emergency has
been handled - hopefully with a positive result.
To be clear, usually all other chatter and communication on a specific radio frequency
will cease once a “MAYDAY” has been declared without an additional order.
However, if there is any additional interference an order of “Seelonce MAYDAY” will be
given out”.
And yes, you guessed it, it is once again French.
“Seelonce” is the approximate French translation of “silence”.
When this order is given, it means that the channel it is given on can only be used by
the vessel in distress and the authorities handling the call.
One of the reasons so many French words are used in emergency situations is because, outside
of French-speaking countries, they are easy to separate from the usual chatter that may
be occurring via radio.
So are these the only phrases pilots use in a crisis?
Well, not quite.
Some pilots will go with alternates, such as “declaring an emergency”.
However, the International Civil Aviation Organization highly discourages using any
alternative distress signals, as they tend to cause confusion rather than help.
As “MAYDAY” is currently the international standard for distress calls, using anything
other than those words can mess up authorities’ responses.
Usually, authorities won’t confuse the alternative distress call for long, but in a dire situation,
even a momentary delay can make the difference between life and death.
Also, if for whatever reason a “MAYDAY” can’t be verbally given, a pilot or captain
has a few other options.
Every modern aircraft has a transponder which identifies the plane on radar.
The pilot will set a four figure code - known as a squawk code - given to them by the controller
to help identify their plane popping up on radar.
This four digit code will appear on screen right next to the aircraft trace.
If the pilot can’t speak or radio communications go down, he can input a special squawk code
of 7700 to signal MAYDAY.
This code will trigger an alarm in the control room which notifies all controllers that the
aircraft is in serious trouble.
Let’s say a pilot sends out this distress signal, ends up sorting everything out, and
the plane lands safely with all the crew and passengers alive and well.
What happens next?
Well, every time a “MAYDAY” call is issued, that usually means a ton of paperwork for
the person who issued the call.
If they survived, of course.
However, in more recent years, the FAA and other governing bodies have made allowances,
depending on the type of emergency, to ease this burden for pilots.
Probably because the threat of a mountain of paperwork might be enough to make some
pilots re-consider if their situation is reaaaaallly [emphasis] that much of an emergency after
all.
We’ve spoken a fair bit about officers making distress calls, but civilians can also make
“MAYDAY” calls.
For example, a regular person on their private boat facing danger or lost at sea can ask
the Coast Guard for help via a “MAYDAY” call.
Unfortunately, some people have taken to using “MAYDAY” calls as pranks.
For example, a man in Rockland, Maine, issued a “MAYDAY” distress call on December 3,
2020, to the local Coast Guard on a VHF-FM radio channel.
After they received the call, the Coast Guard started searching the area with a Maine Marine
Patrol vessel, helicopter, and Coast Guard vessel for five hours to locate the man they
assumed to be missing or in distress.
The man was eventually identified and the call discovered to be a hoax; because some
people are sociopaths in their free time.
In response, the US District Court of Portland, Maine, filed a criminal complaint against
him in January of 2021.
The Coast Guard addressed the court case by stating that hoax “MAYDAY” calls are not
only degrading for authorities, but detract from their ability to do their jobs and provide
assistance to others who may be in real trouble.
Unfortunately, the Coast Guard is particularly vulnerable to these hoaxes as the VHF radio
signals it uses to receive distress signals are nearly untraceable, making pranksters
hard to identify.
However, generally speaking the universal adoption of the “MAYDAY” signal has been
an incredible and necessary precaution to help aircraft, sailing vessels, and authorities
around the world immediately declare and understand emergency situations as well as coordinate
the appropriate response.
Now go check this video out here, or this other video instead!