“When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.”
Isaiah 43:2 (NIV)
Mayday became the universal distress call because there was a need for a better radio transmission call for help, other than SOS. The letter S was often misheard as F over the radio.
With increased air and water travel in the 1920’s, the Royal Air Force developed the word “Mayday,” which originates from a French phrase for help me, m’aider, and turned into the word Mayday. It was easy to hear over the radio and became the international call of distress, when it is called three times in a row.
Some may recall in 2009, a US Airways Flight 1549, collided with a flock of Canadian geese. They hit the plane shortly after take off from LaGuardia, disabling both engines. The seasoned pilot, was an Air Force fighter pilot before flying commercial, Captain Chesley Sullenberger, who was known by his nickname, Sully.
When Sully saw that both engines were disabled, his quick thinking decided the best chance of survival was to avoid the Manhattan skyline, and steer the engineless plane around and into the waters of the Hudson River.
With a calm demeanor, Sully made the Mayday call only 22 seconds after the birds hit the plane. In less than four minutes from his Mayday call, he glided the plane into the Hudson River. The force of the plane spun around in the water, but rescue boats quickly arrived, saving all 155 people on board.
The people on that plane landed in the Hudson River, but the waters did not sweep over them, just as the scripture verse says.
It happened 15 years ago, but after hearing a survivor share his story on a Christian TV show, it renewed my interest. Fred Beretta, in the weeks prior to the accident, had been in a phase of renewing and deepening his personal relationship with Jesus. He decided to take a Christian book along with him on the flight that day.
He was reading his book after the flight took off, when he looked out the window and noticed both the engines in flames. Sully announced to the passengers to prepare for an emergency landing, after calling in a Mayday. Within those seconds, Fred wondered if his recent recommitment to his faith, was to prepare him for the end of his life.
The thought crossed his mind that the book on his lap was the last book he would read, and these could be the last seconds of his life. Fred Beretta surrendered himself into God’s hands and braced for the end. By God’s grace and to his surprise, he survived, as did all the people on board that plane.
I always thought it’s a good practice to live each day as if it’s our last day, yet no one can prepare for the moments before a plane crash or any similar disaster. An experienced, seasoned pilot can, however, be prepared for the technical skills required in steering and landing an engineless plane.
News coverage and articles were written about this event, which rightfully credited Sully with his 20,000 hours of flight time, quick thinking, calming demeanor, four decades of flying experience, and his expert control in landing a plane in the Hudson River.
There were still many factors that Sully, or any other pilot, could not control that day. He couldn’t control the flock of geese from hitting the engines of his plane. He couldn’t control whether there would be ice on the water where the plane landed, and yet there was no ice on the river that cold January day. He couldn’t control whether other boats would be in the region when that plane hit the water, but there were no other boats around.
As the plane hit the water, he also couldn’t control the violent spin, which could have caused fatalities, but there were no fatalities, and only five injuries.
All the factors that couldn’t be controlled by the pilot’s expertise, were taken care of by God’s response to the Mayday calls sent up by those who were on that plane.
Sully used his skills and experience, to the best of his abilities, but God did the rest. It’s a basic spiritual lesson for all believers, that we are expected to use our faith experience and prayer skills, to the best of our ability, and trust God for whatever we cannot control.
Living out our flight hours of faith, requires daily communication with Jesus, lots of endurance and perseverance to keep trusting in Him in times of adversity. It can certainly feel like we are flying an engineless plane at times, with so much out of our control, as the waters of life spin us around. Our Mayday prayers still ascend straight up to God and He is always with us.
The protocol for the distress signal, internationally, requires calling out “Mayday” three times. While we journey through life, we are in a relationship with a Triune God. We are praying to the Father, through Jesus, the Son and are filled with the Holy Spirit, the Helper who Jesus sent us.
Trusting in the three in one, is the Mayday call of every human soul and spirit, which leads us to a safe landing for all eternity.
Lord, we never know what life will bring, but we know if we stay close to you, sending up Mayday calls to heaven, we can pass through the waters and remain secure through anything that comes our way. Amen