NYC-bound Virgin Air Flight 45 squawking Hijack code; being diverted to New Brunswick, Canada

ABC News | 6-3-5 | ABC News

[Petronski]

The pilot says the hijack code is an error and the plane is secure, but naturally the authorities are not trusting him.

[fortunecookie]

LOLOL! Is that ululation I hear????

[Restore]

If I'm not mistaken, no controller will assign you a 77XX, 76XX or 75XX-series code. The first two digits are reserved for the appropriate emergency. Therefore if you accidentally put in 7521 when you were assigned, for example, 7021, the bells would go off and you would be challenged.

[LikeLight]

Well, I'm getting a shower. For real.

[getmeouttaPalmBeachCounty_FL]

Where does one get a FReeRepublic paging system for the home & car? :P

[Petronski]

It seems odd at best.

Landing will be either the end of the pilot's troubles, or just the beginning.

Mr. Pilot, thees iz gonna be a chaynging dayyy in your laf!

[expatpat]

I'm a pilot, and your explanation is a good one, but there may be a one-button activation of the 7500 code, as you suggest. I don't know, I'm not Air Transport.

[Gunrunner2]

Yeah. . .did that myself.

Back int the 80's, flying A-10's out of RAF Bentwaters, working flying A-10 versus A-10 Basic Fighter Maneuvers sortie over the "Wash," an over water area north of Coltishal.

I was up high, about ready to roll in when a Jaguar flew up the backside of my wingman and I called a break turn for the wingman and he did a max-G turn to the left. The Jaguar stayed on his tail and I rolled in. . .steep, very steep. Got to the Barber-pole airspeed on the A-10 (about 425 kts, I think it was). And I was soon saddled up close on the Jaguar and in guns position.

Sweet.

However, I couldn't get the Jaguar to see me. . .he simply was focused on the other A-10. So. . .I reached down and gently hit the "tone" button while having the transponder on Guard (emergency freq).

Anyway, when I hit the "beep-beep" the Jaguar pilot looked around and saw me there gunning his brains out. Ha ha. . .he pitched up and flew away.

Now, for the rest of the story.

The quick "beep" on Guard alerted the controllers and soon a broadcast to the entire UK was heard; "This is London Mil on Guard. Aircraft squawking emergency three miles north of Blakely Point please identify and state nature of emergency."

Oops.

I ignored the call, and after the controller made the same call again. . .and again. . .eventually I had to switch over to Guard and say; "London Mil, this is Hog Flight. . .inadvertent actuation of the tone button. . .disregard." (Basically saying, "nevermind.")

[Old_Mil]

To the aviation community. It pi$$&$ me off that this stuff is reported to the public; being married to a pilot.

This is hardly a state secret; you can get this information from pretty much any private pilot flight training manual available on Amazon.com. You could probably even google for it.

[LIConFem]

"There is a squawk button, but all pilots I know and all air traffic controllers I know refer to it as the "ident" button..."

No, the ident button is the ident button. The transponder will continuously squawk whatever code is dialed in (with altitude info, if mode C). As you said, the ident button will flash or ripple your info on the controller's radar screen.

[Petronski]

"Virgin 45 Heavy to Halifax control: All is wellelelelelelelelel. We land now."

[mewzilla]

Landing will be either the end of the pilot's troubles, or just the beginning.

Well, if he did screw up, it could be worse. It could've been a real hijacking. The pilot should count his blessings.

[Dennis M.]

The system isn't perfect. A few years ago I was at cruise in a C150 below San Jose. ATC suddenly thought I had a 7700 code. My code wasn't even close. It was some kind of glitch on their end. I think the codes are assigned such that they aren't close to the special codes so that when you change codes you shouldn't hit them, at least if you careful.

[SFC Chromey]

Aren't The Snowbirds Canadian? Maybe that's who doing the escort!

[Nowhere Man]

I haven't flown for a number of years now, and maybe things have changed, but when I flew transponders didn't have "squawk buttons." You just dialed in the code (four separate digit wheels) assigned by ATC. It's pretty hard to "accidentaly" dial in the hijack code unless one really intended to dial in the emergency code (7700, I think. And 7600 is used for something too.) instead.

From what I can research, 7500 is skyjack, 7600 is lost radio communications, 7700 is inflight emergency and 1200 is visual flight rules. Oh yeah, 7777 is for military interceptors.

Transponder Squawk Codes

[expatpat]

What do they expect? Panties on its head?

[KevinDavis]

Correction former pilots..

[Moose4]

As an aside...is flying the A-10 the most fun you can have with your clothes on? It always looked like it when I saw shows about the Warthog.

}:-)4

[Petronski]

Anyone who wants that info can probably find it on the internet, at the gear manufacturer's website.

[Gunrunner2]

Excellent question.

[Raycpa]

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