Yesterday was May Day, but it might have escaped your notice. May Day is less popular in the United States than it is in Europe, where larger celebrations take place in Germany and England. The holiday started in pre-Christian times as a welcome to the summer season and the midpoint of the year. Revelers celebrate by dancing around the May Pole and anonymously delivering small baskets of sweets and treats to their neighbors’ doorsteps.
If you’re a pilot or private jet owner, you’re probably more familiar with another kind of may day: the distress call primarily used over ship and aircraft radio communications. The phrase originated in 1923 when a senior radio officer was asked to think of a code word to use to express distress. The mayday call comes from the French “vener m’aidez,” which means “come help me.”
The mayday call should be repeated three times over the radio so it is clearly heard over noise: Mayday Mayday Mayday! The call can be used by pilots on a commercial flight as well as on a corporate jet, but making a false mayday call can carry a penalty in the U.S. of up to a $250,000 fine and six years of imprisonment.
Another well-known distress signal is the SOS call. The SOS letters have been said to mean “save our ship,” “save our souls,” or “sink or swim.” In fact, none of these are true. The SOS signal was chosen because it‘s easy to remember and communicate over Morse code: three dots, three dashes, and three dots. The signal was agreed upon at a 1906 conference and became the official Morse code distress signal in 1908.
Ideally your May Day was filled with candy and celebrations, not distress calls! Now you have some aviation trivia to share at your next hangar party or on your next flight.