Emergency Signals & Precedence
MAYDAY, PAN-PAN, SECURITE, and how message precedence decides what gets handled first.
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The three international signals
Three spoken signals flag traffic that outranks everything else. They exist so any operator on any net instantly knows the level of seriousness.
- MAYDAY — DISTRESS. Grave and imminent danger requiring immediate assistance. The highest priority that exists. Spoken three times.
- PAN-PAN — URGENCY. A condition concerning safety of a person, aircraft, or vehicle, but without immediate grave danger.
- SECURITE (say 'say-cure-it-tay') — SAFETY. A navigational, weather, or other safety message.
Handling distress from another station
If you hear a distress call, stop and listen. The station in distress has absolute priority. If you can help relay or you're the best-placed station, acknowledge and assist; otherwise, maintain silence so the distress traffic gets through. Never transmit over distress traffic.
Message precedence
Routine traffic also has a priority system so the NCS knows what to pass first. The common designators, highest to lowest, are FLASH, IMMEDIATE, PRIORITY, and ROUTINE. Higher-precedence messages are passed before lower ones. Formal message forms like the ICS-213 carry a precedence/time field where you record this. Use the lowest precedence that fits — over-classifying everything as urgent defeats the purpose.