Module 7 - Urgency & Safety Calls
Choosing the Right Priority
What you will learn
Choose between Mayday, PAN-PAN, SECURITE and routine traffic from the danger, purpose and assistance required.
The priority ladder protects emergency traffic only when each signal is used for its intended job. Start with the present risk and communication purpose, then keep reviewing them.
Mayday has the highest priority because it announces grave and imminent danger requiring immediate assistance. PAN-PAN is urgency traffic concerning the safety of a person or vessel. SECURITE introduces important safety information. Routine calls cover ordinary operations below those thresholds.
The same underlying problem can move between priorities. A machinery failure may begin as routine while secured, become urgency when prompt assistance is needed, and become distress if the vessel is driven into immediate danger. A report of an unlit buoy is safety information even when the reporting vessel is safe.
Over-prioritising can disrupt higher-priority traffic; under-prioritising can delay a response. Use the signal that truthfully describes the current facts and assistance required, and change it when those facts change.
Worked example
Four calls occur: a vessel is sinking; another has a serious controlled injury; a third reports a floating obstruction; a fourth requests a berth.
- 1Sinking with immediate assistance required: MAYDAY.
- 2Serious but not presently life-threatening medical concern: PAN-PAN through HM Coastguard.
- 3Important hazard information: safety report, with SECURITE used for an authorised safety message.
- 4Berth request: routine traffic on the appropriate channel.
Sense check: Each choice describes the transmission's purpose; none is selected merely because it sounds more important.
Use three questions before transmitting
The skipper hands the operator a one-line incident report and asks which priority to use.
1. What is at risk?
Identify whether a person or vessel is in danger, or whether the call only passes safety information.
2. How immediate is it?
Separate grave and imminent danger from serious urgency and ordinary need.
3. What response is required?
Choose immediate assistance, urgent help or advice, attention to a warning, or a routine reply.
Sense check: If the chosen signal does not match the requested response, reassess before transmitting.
Common mistake or limitation
- Memorising labels without linking them to different communication purposes.
- Assuming an incident keeps the same priority after its risk changes.
- Using SECURITE as a lower-priority request for help rather than a safety-information signal.
Recap
- The order is Mayday, PAN-PAN, SECURITE, then routine.
- Danger, purpose and assistance required choose the signal.
- Reclassify when the facts change.
Optional quick check
Section 3 of 9
Which order correctly ranks distress, urgency and safety traffic?
Sources and factual review
Reviewed 20 August 2026 - Compass Revision editorial review.
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