00:00Goosebumps, shivers and a Mayday call.
00:03When AI-171's pilot Sumit Sabharwal said Mayday, Mayday, Mayday,
00:08he declared a life-threatening emergency, requiring immediate help.
00:13What was this Mayday distress signal given by the flight?
00:16Air India-171 carrying 242 people crashed 5 minutes after takeoff.
00:21The Boeing 7878 felt silent soon after the Mayday call was issued,
00:25right after takeoff from Ahmedabad.
00:27After a Mayday call is issued, all non-essential radio traffic stands down
00:31and Air Traffic Control or ATC prioritises that call.
00:35Pilots then provide key details, call sign, location, nature of emergency,
00:40number of people aboard and requests so that rescue teams can act fast.
00:44In the case of Air India-171, the flight went silent
00:47as the ATC maintained contact within 5 minutes of takeoff.
00:51Once the Mayday was issued, the signal instantly triggered
00:54emergency protocols, dispatching fire, medical and security services to the scene.
00:59The word Mayday was coined in the early 1920s by Frederick Stanley Mockford,
01:04a radio officer at Croydon Airport in London.
01:07He chose it as a phonetic equivalent to the French phrase,
01:10Mayday, which means help me, making it easily understood in the cross-channel traffic.
01:14It became part of international radio communication for pilots and marinas by 1923
01:19and was formally adopted in 1927 alongside the Mors, SOS and International Aviation Standard.
01:27Even in 2025, a Mayday call remains the first point of any aviation disaster.
01:32Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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