If you have a radio on board you are supposed to monitor and render assistance if a call is made.
For over the "air" distress signals "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, this is .........)" is the most severe distress call.
Where immediate assistance is not needed but you want specific agency to know of a situation you should use "Pan-Pan, Pan-Pan, Pan-Pan this is .......). If your radio can pick up the coast card responses you will hear Pan-Pan called out fairly frequently.
Mayday was derived from the French term “venez m'aider” - "come help me".
Pan stands for Possible Assistance Needed.
MistyBlue - Thanks for so eloquently describing the power of broadcasting to a relavant audience. Everyone should always keep their device on when possible in the event they can prevent a bad situation from going tragic.
|