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Why do we say Mayday when in trouble?

Owing to the difficulty of distinguishing the letter “S” by telephone, the international distress signal “S.O.S.” will give place to the words “May-day”, the phonetic equivalent of “M'aidez”, the French for “Help me.”



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Mayday got its start as an international distress call in 1923. It was made official in 1948. It was the idea of Frederick Mockford, who was a senior radio officer at Croydon Airport in London. He came up with the idea for “mayday because it sounded like the French word m'aider, which means “help me.

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Pan-Pan, short for “possible assistance needed,” is used to communicate an urgent, but not emergency, situation over VHF radio, in the case of aviation, to air traffic control. Examples could include a recreational pilot getting lost, or perhaps needing to climb to a higher altitude to sort a problem out.

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If distress, MAYDAY, MAYDAY, MAY-DAY; if urgency, PAN-PAN, PAN-PAN, PAN-PAN. Name of station addressed. Aircraft identification and type.

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(In 1957, the English phonetic alphabet changed the R to Romeo, but by that time, Roger was deeply embedded in the minds of pilots.) So, in short, Roger means r which stands for received. The word Roger means nothing more.

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