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India Today
2 days ago
- General
- India Today
From Mayday to SOS: 5 emergency distress signals and how they are used
An Air India Boeing7878 (Flight AI171), bound for London with 242 souls, issued a Mayday call shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad on Thursday. The plane crashed near the airport, plummeting into buildings and engulfing the Meghani area in thick black smoke. Emergency services raced in as the crew's urgent signal transformed a routine flight into a tragic event has brought renewed focus on aviation distress signals -- those urgent calls like 'Mayday' and 'Pan-Pan' that can mean the difference between life and death. Here are five such signals you should know about along with how they began and well-known use cases:advertisement1. MAYDAYIntroduced: 1923 at Croydon Airport (UK), and adopted universally in 1927. Why it's used: Repeated thrice -- 'Mayday, Mayday, Mayday'—it instantly commands absolute priority from all communication use: On US Airways Flight 1549 in 2009 ('Miracle on the Hudson'), Captain Sully Sullenberger declared Mayday before landing on the Hudson, saving all onboard.2. PANPANIntroduced: Standardised in 1927 alongside it's used: Signals an urgent situation -- not yet life-threatening, but needing attention (like engine trouble or medical issues).Famous use: Swissair Flight 111 declared 'PanPan' due to electrical fire before issuing Mayday, ensuring correct escalation of the situation.3. SOSIntroduced: International Morse code distress call in 1908 (first proposed in 1905).Why it's used: A repeated Morse pattern (...---...) easily recognised under duress, it remains iconic in maritime use: Titanic radio operators used both CQD and then SOS after hitting an iceberg in 1912, signalling nearby ships for emergency rescue.4. CQDIntroduced: 1904 by Marconi as the first radio distress it's used: 'CQ' meant 'calling all stations,' and adding 'D' meant use: SS Republic sent a CQD in 1909. Titanic used the CQD alongside SOS.5. SCURITIntroduced: Standard voice call alongside Mayday/ it's used: Warns of safety information (weather alerts, navigational hazards), not use: Regularly used during maritime exercises and safety broadcasts. It's rarely seen in dramatic news, but it's vital for safe distress signals created a universal language for emergencies -- cutting through panic with clarity. Whether it's a jet in flames or a ship sinking, one word can at times save lives.
India Today
2 days ago
- General
- India Today
What is a Mayday call? Modern emergency call in aviation explained
An Air India Boeing 7878 (Flight AI171), carrying 242 people, crashed five minutes after take-off from Ahmedabad's Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International issued a Mayday call shortly before going silent -- and then plummeted into a building near Meghani Nagar, erupting in black smoke and OF THE 'MAYDAY' DISTRESS SIGNALThe word 'Mayday' was coined in the early 1920s by Frederick Stanley Mockford, a radio officer at Croydon Airport in London. He chose it as a phonetic equivalent of the French phrase m'aider ('help me'), making it easily understood in cross-channel became part of international radio communication for pilots and mariners by 1923, and was formally adopted in 1927 alongside the Morse 'SOS'.HOW A MAYDAY CALL WORKSWhen a pilot says 'Mayday, Mayday, Mayday', they're declaring a life-threatening emergency requiring immediate help. All non-essential radio traffic must stand down, and air traffic control (ATC) prioritises that then provide key details -- call sign, location, nature of emergency, number of people aboard, and requests -- so rescue teams can act USE AND MODERN APPLICATIONFirst flight use (1923): Croydon-Le Bourget flights began using 'Mayday.'Aviation standard (1927): The International Radiotelegraph Convention formalised emergency frequencies (121.5MHz and 243MHz) are constantly monitored by ATC for any Mayday IT MATTERS IN THIS CRASHadvertisementIn the case of Air India AI171, the Mayday call confirmed the crew faced a sudden, critical event shortly after take-off, even while ATC still maintained issued, this signal instantly triggers emergency protocols, dispatching fire, medical, and security services to the scene. Hotline number 1800 5691 444 can be dialled to get updates on passengers directly from Air Watch
