Okuzeka
Aviation vocabulary · Emergencies & Abnormal Situations

Mayday

Meaning in aviation, with examples

/ˈmeɪdeɪ/phraseCore term

In aviation, Mayday means: The international radio distress call, used when an aircraft or ship is in grave and immediate danger and needs help at once. It is said three times.

In Turkish: tehlike çağrısı, Mayday çağrısı

How it is used

Used for situations such as a fire, a serious engine failure or a dangerously low fuel state. An aircraft in distress has priority over all other traffic. The matching transponder code is 7700.

Example sentences

  1. Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, Fastair 345, engine fire, descending to flight level 100.

  2. After the Mayday call, the controller cleared the airspace ahead of the aircraft.

Common collocations

  • declare a Mayday
  • Mayday call
  • Mayday fuel
  • cancel Mayday
  • pan-panThe international radio urgency call, used when there is a problem that affects safety but does not need immediate help. It is said three times.
  • squawkTo set a four-digit code on the aircraft's transponder so that controllers can identify it on radar. As a noun, the code itself.
  • divertTo fly to a different airport from the planned destination, for example because of bad weather, a medical emergency or a technical problem.
  • evacuateTo get everyone off an aircraft or out of a building quickly because staying is dangerous, for example because of fire or smoke.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Emergencies & Abnormal Situations

Practise with graded reading

Reading at the right level is the fastest way to make new words stick. Pick free English books by level: