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Mayday
Mayday is an emergency procedure word used internationally as a distress signal in voice-procedure radio communications. It is used to signal a life-threatening emergency primarily by aviators and mariners, but in some countries local organizations such as firefighters, police forces, and transportation organizations also use the term. Convention requires the word be repeated three times in a row during the initial emergency declaration ("Mayday mayday mayday"). History The "mayday" procedure word was conceived as a distress call in the early 1920s by Frederick Stanley Mockford, officer-in-charge of radio at Croydon Airport, England. He had been asked to think of a word that would indicate distress and would easily be understood by all pilots and ground staff in an emergency. Since much of the air traffic at the time was between Croydon and Le Bourget Airport in Paris, he proposed the term "mayday", the phonetic equivalent of the French ("help me") or (a short form of , ...
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Procedure Word
Procedure words (abbreviated to prowords) are words or phrases limited to radio telephone procedure used to facilitate communication by conveying information in a condensed standard verbal format. Prowords are voice versions of the much older procedural signs for Morse code which were first developed in the 1860s for Morse telegraphy, and their meaning is identical. The NATO communications manual ACP-125 contains the most formal and perhaps earliest modern (post-World War II) glossary of prowords, but its definitions have been adopted by many other organizations, including the United Nations Development Programme, the U.S. Coast Guard, US Civil Air Patrol, US Military Auxiliary Radio System, and others. Prowords are one of several structured parts of radio voice procedures, including brevity codes and plain language radio checks. Examples According to the U.S. Marine Corps training document FMSO 108, "understanding the following PROWORDS and their respective definitions ...
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Federal Aviation Administration
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic management, certification of personnel and aircraft, setting standards for airports, and protection of U.S. assets during the launch or re-entry of commercial space vehicles. Powers over neighboring international waters were delegated to the FAA by authority of the International Civil Aviation Organization. Created in , the FAA replaced the former Civil Aeronautics Board, Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) and later became an agency within the United States Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of Transportation. Major functions The FAA's roles include: *Regulating U.S. commercial space transportation *Regulating air navigation facilities' geometric and flight inspection standards *Encouraging and developing civil aeronautics, ...
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History Of Air Traffic Control
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well as the memory, discovery, collection, organization, presentation, and interpretation of these events. Historians seek knowledge of the past using historical sources such as written documents, oral accounts, art and material artifacts, and ecological markers. History is not complete and still has debatable mysteries. History is also an academic discipline which uses narrative to describe, examine, question, and analyze past events, and investigate their patterns of cause and effect. Historians often debate which narrative best explains an event, as well as the significance of different causes and effects. Historians also debate the nature of history as an end in itself, as well as its usefulness to give perspective on the problems of the ...
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Emergency Communication
An emergency is an urgent, unexpected, and usually dangerous situation that poses an immediate risk to health, life, property, or environment and requires immediate action. Most emergencies require urgent intervention to prevent a worsening of the situation, although in some situations, mitigation may not be possible and agencies may only be able to offer palliative care for the aftermath. While some emergencies are self-evident (such as a natural disaster that threatens many lives), many smaller incidents require that an observer (or affected party) decide whether it qualifies as an emergency. The precise definition of an emergency, the agencies involved and the procedures used, vary by jurisdiction, and this is usually set by the government, whose agencies ( emergency services) are responsible for emergency planning and management. Defining an emergency An incident, to be an emergency, conforms to one or more of the following, if it: * Poses an immediate threat to life, h ...
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Vessel Emergency Codes
In addition to distress signals like Mayday and pan-pan, most vessels, especially passenger ships, use some emergency signals to alert the crew on board. In some cases, the signals may alert the passengers to danger, but, in others, the objective is to conceal the emergency from unaffected passengers so as to avoid panic or undue alarm. Signals can be in the form of blasts on alarm bells, sounds on the ship's whistle or code names paged over the PA system. *Alpha, Alpha, Alpha is the code for a medical emergency aboard Royal Caribbean ships. *Alpha Team, Alpha Team, Alpha Team is the code for a fire emergency aboard Carnival Cruise Line ships. *Assemble at Muster Stations (General Emergency Signal), seven short blasts followed by one long blast of the ships horn and internal alarm bell system. *Bravo, Bravo, Bravo is used by many cruise lines to alert crew to a fire or other serious incident on board without alarming passengers. *Operation Brightstar designates a medical emergency ...
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Sécurité
Sécurité (; French: ''sécurité'') (often repeated thrice, "Sécurité, sécurité, sécurité") is a procedure word used in the maritime radio service that warns the crew that the following message is important safety information. The most common use of this is by coast radio stations before the broadcast of navigational warnings and meteorological information. Navigational warnings are issued regularly and usually give information about people or vessels in distress and objects or events that can be an immediate danger to people at sea and how they are navigating. In the United States, MARAD (Marine Administration) sends out infrequent advisories about potential global political climate dangers. There are four types of navigational warnings, which are categorized by their location. These areas are NAVAREA IV, HYDROLANT, NAVAREA XII, and HYDROPAC. Meteorological information is information that is about the marine atmosphere. These meteorological advisories include the develo ...
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Global Maritime Distress Safety System
The Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) is a worldwide system for automated emergency signal communication for ships at sea developed by the United Nations' International Maritime Organization (IMO) as part of the SOLAS Convention. It's a set of safety procedures, types of equipment, and communication protocols used for safety and rescue operations of the distressed ships, boats, and aircraft. It's supplemental to the International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue (ICMSaR) adopted in 1979 and provides basis for the communication. GMDSS consists of several systems which are intended to perform the following functions: alerting (including position determination of the ship in distress) ships in the vicinity and ashore authorities, search and rescue coordination, locating (homing), maritime safety information broadcasts, general communications, and bridge-to-bridge communications. Specific radio carriage requirements depend upon the ship's area of operatio ...
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Aircraft Emergency Frequency
The aircraft emergency frequency (also known as GUARD) is a frequency used on the aircraft band reserved for emergency communications for aircraft in distress. The frequencies are 121.5 MHz for civilian, also known as International Air Distress (IAD) or VHF Guard, and 243.0 MHz—the second harmonic of VHF guard—for military use, also known as Military Air Distress (MAD) or UHF Guard. Earlier emergency locator transmitters (ELTs) used the guard frequencies to transmit, but an additional frequency of 406 MHz is used by a more modern emergency locator transmitter. History The choice of 121.5 MHz was made by ICAO in conjunction with ARINC and the ITU. Monitoring In the United States, the emergency frequency is monitored by most air traffic control towers, FSS services, national air traffic control centers, military air defense and other flight and emergency services, as well as by many commercial aircraft. The notice to airmen FDC 4/4386 requires "…all air ...
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International Civil Aviation Organization
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO, ) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that coordinates the principles and techniques of international air navigation, and fosters the planning and development of international air transport to ensure safe and orderly growth. ICAO headquarters are located in the ''Quartier International'' of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The ICAO Council adopts standards and recommended practices concerning air navigation, its infrastructure, flight inspection, prevention of unlawful interference, and facilitation of border-crossing procedures for international civil aviation. ICAO defines the protocols for air accident investigation that are followed by transport safety authorities in countries signatory to the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation. The Air Navigation Commission (ANC) is the technical body within ICAO. The commission is composed of 19 commissioners, nominated by the ICAO's contracting states and a ...
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Heavy (aviation)
The term ''heavy'' is used during radio transmissions between air traffic control and any aircraft which has been assigned a maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) rating of or more. Aircraft with a MTOW rating between 7 t and 136 t are considered ''medium'', and aircraft with a MTOW rating less than 7 t are considered ''light''. In the US, the FAA uses a slightly different categorization, adding a block between medium and heavy, labeling aircraft capable of maximum takeoff weights more than and less than as ''large''. All aircraft produce wingtip vortices that create wake turbulence in flight. The vortex strength increases when the aircraft is heavier and when it flies slowly. Thus, the term "heavy" (unlike light, medium and large) is included by heavy-class aircraft in radio transmissions around airports during take-off and landing, incorporated into the call sign, to warn other aircraft that they should leave additional separation to avoid this wake turbulence. All wide-body aircraft ...
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Geneva Conventions
upright=1.15, Original document in single pages, 1864 The Geneva Conventions are four treaties, and three additional protocols, that establish international legal standards for humanitarian treatment in war. The singular term ''Geneva Convention'' usually denotes the agreements of 1949, negotiated in the aftermath of the Second World War (1939–1945), which updated the terms of the two 1929 treaties and added two new conventions. The Geneva Conventions extensively define the basic rights of wartime prisoners (civilians and military personnel), established protections for the wounded and sick, and provided protections for the civilians in and around a war-zone; moreover, the Geneva Convention also defines the rights and protections afforded to non-combatants. The treaties of 1949 were ratified, in their entirety or with reservations, by 196 countries. The Geneva Conventions concern only prisoners and non-combatants in war; they do not address the use of weapons of war, ...
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