3.4 Urgency (PAN PAN) & Safety (SECURITE) Traffic
Key Takeaways
- The Urgency signal is the words PAN PAN spoken three times before the urgency call
- The Safety signal is SECURITE spoken three times, followed by the station call letters spoken three times
- A typical Urgency transmission is a request for medical assistance short of distress, or critical weather more serious than a routine Safety broadcast
- The Urgency signal may be sent only on the authority of the master of the ship or the person responsible for the mobile station
- Urgency has lower priority than Distress and higher priority than Safety - the fixed order is Distress, Urgency, Safety
3.4 Urgency (PAN PAN) & Safety (SECURITE) Traffic
Quick Answer: PAN PAN x3 = Urgency. SECURITE x3 (then call letters x3) = Safety. Urgency covers medical assistance short of distress and weather too critical for a routine Safety broadcast. Only the master or the person responsible for the mobile station may authorise an urgency transmission. Priority order is fixed: Distress > Urgency > Safety.
Section 3.2 covered distress. Official sub-topic 1-B-11 (Urgency and Safety Communications) covers the two rungs below it, and the pool tests them together because candidates constantly blur the boundary.
The three-tier priority ladder
| Tier | Spoken signal | Meaning | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| Distress | MAYDAY x3 | Grave and imminent danger, immediate assistance required | Highest |
| Urgency | PAN PAN x3 | A very urgent message about the safety of a ship, aircraft or person—but not grave and imminent danger | Middle |
| Safety | SECURITE x3 | A station is about to transmit an important navigational or meteorological warning | Lowest of the three |
Memorise the ladder as an ordered list, because the pool asks the comparison directly: "The Urgency signal has lower priority than: Distress." It does not ask which is highest overall—it asks what outranks urgency, and only distress does.
Urgency: PAN PAN
The internationally recognised urgency signal is the words "PAN PAN" spoken three times before the urgency call. Not once, not twice—three times, exactly like MAYDAY and SECURITE. The triple repetition exists so a half-attentive watchkeeper catches the signal even if the first utterance is clipped by squelch.
What actually counts as urgency
The pool's own description of a typical urgency transmission is worth quoting: a request for medical assistance that does not rise to the level of a distress, or a critical weather transmission higher than Safety. Two clean examples:
- Medical: a crew member with a suspected heart attack on a vessel that is not itself in danger. The ship is fine; a person is not. That is urgency, not distress.
- Weather: a sudden, immediately dangerous phenomenon that cannot wait for the next routine SECURITE broadcast.
The boundary test is whether grave and imminent danger exists to the vessel or to life such that immediate assistance is required. If yes, it is MAYDAY. If the situation is very serious but not that, it is PAN PAN.
Who may authorise it
Either the master of the ship or the person responsible for the mobile station. This mirrors the distress rule and the general principle from section 2.5 that the master holds ultimate control of station service. An individual crew member cannot decide unilaterally to put PAN PAN on the air. Note the answer covers both cases—a ship (master) and a non-ship mobile station (the responsible person)—so options naming only one are incomplete.
Safety: SECURITE
A Safety transmission is one which indicates that a station is preparing to transmit an important navigation or weather warning. Read that definition carefully: the SECURITE call is an announcement that a warning is coming, usually with a channel shift. The warning itself follows on a working channel.
The spoken form is more elaborate than PAN PAN and the pool tests it precisely:
SECURITE, SECURITE, SECURITE — then the station call letters spoken three times — to announce a storm warning, danger to navigation, or special aid to navigation.
The three categories in that list are the standard content of safety traffic:
- Storm warnings and other meteorological hazards
- Dangers to navigation — a drifting container, an uncharted obstruction, a vessel not under command in a fairway
- Special aids to navigation — a buoy off station, a light extinguished, a temporary mark established
The distinctions the pool actually tests
| Question shape | Correct answer |
|---|---|
| "Internationally recognised Urgency signal?" | PAN PAN spoken three times |
| "Safety signal call word spoken three times, then call letters three times?" | SECURITE |
| "Typical Urgency transmission?" | Medical assistance short of distress, or critical weather above safety level |
| "What is a Safety transmission?" | A station is preparing to transmit an important navigation or weather warning |
| "Urgency has lower priority than…" | Distress |
| "Urgency sent only on the authority of…" | Master of ship or person responsible for the mobile station |
Practical operating notes
- Urgency and safety calls normally go out on the distress and calling channel (Ch-16 on VHF, 2182 kHz on MF) and then shift to a working channel for the message body, keeping the calling channel clear.
- A silent period restriction does not block a genuine urgency transmission—but routine testing does have to respect silent periods (see section 4.6).
- Logging follows priority: distress traffic you hear is logged; safety traffic is logged when it concerns your own vessel (section 2.4).
- False PAN PAN or SECURITE traffic is not harmless. Cancelling a mistaken urgency or safety call follows the same instinct as cancelling a false distress: get on the air promptly and retract it so other stations stand down.
What is the internationally recognised Urgency signal, and what does the Safety signal consist of?
A crew member on an otherwise seaworthy vessel suffers a suspected heart attack. Which category applies, and who may authorise the transmission?
Which statement correctly describes a Safety transmission and its priority?
The Urgency signal has lower priority than which category?