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An international radio distress signal used by ships and aircraft.
‘we sent out a Mayday’
‘the pilot was screaming ‘Mayday!’’
as modifier‘a Mayday call’
‘He sent out a Mayday signal when the vessel began to take water shortly before darkness fell.’
‘The radio operator sent a Mayday distress call, which was logged by the local Coastguard station at 12.06 am.’
‘The warship received a Mayday saying the ship had exploded following a fire and was sinking off the coast of Malta in severe weather conditions.’
‘A modern factory fishing vessel vanished without sending a Mayday and no survivors were picked up.’
‘It also cites the case of a container ship which ignored a Mayday call off the North Queensland coast.’
‘He also suggested to higher authorities that downed aircrews use the term Mayday instead of just talking on the radio.’
‘I had no idea if anybody would hear my Mayday call.’
‘The helicopter plunged so quickly that neither the crew nor the passengers had time to get into their lifejackets - nor did the pilot have time to send a Mayday signal.’
‘The two-man crew of the cruiser sent out a Mayday call.’
‘The crew abandoned ship at 6.30 am after issuing a Mayday call saying their ship was sinking in the Bristol Channel, around 35 miles south west of the Pembrokeshire coast.’
‘I screamed a Mayday call and hoped I had made the right impression to whomever was listening.’
‘They sent a Mayday radio message and he said: ‘We saw a boat, decided it was our best chance to glide down as near as possible to it.’’
‘With their radio still working the men were able to send out a Mayday signal which was relayed to air traffic control at Blackpool airport.’
‘It answered a midnight Mayday from a yacht in distress and altered course to make a mercy dash off the Dorset coast.’
‘The men sent a Mayday radio message at about 11 am and made a classic ditch landing south of St Martin's Island.’
‘‘I turned off my fuel, closed my throttle and made a Mayday call,’ she says.’
‘The first happened before she reached her station, when a 79-year-old yachtsman put out a Mayday as he had been badly cut and was losing a lot of blood.’
‘To send armed forces onboard a civil ship sending out Mayday signals is piracy.’
‘The ship sent out the Mayday signal early yesterday morning when it was about 33 nautical miles away.’
‘The ship had sent out a Mayday signal at 20: 45 on Saturday to say it had hit a sandbank about 150m off the shore.’
Origin
1920s: representing a pronunciation of French m'aider, from venez m'aider ‘come and help me’.