Was listening to ATC tonight and was alerted by Flightradar24 of an Alaska flight that called a squawk 7700. Does that mean someone on the flight is having a medical emergency? I heard their was an ambulance standing by so I assumed a medical emergency. Thanks
Andrew,
Without much context than what you provided and not listening to the tapes, if they put in their squawk 7700 and requested medical services at the airport, it sounds like they had a medical emergency in the air; whether passenger, flight attendant, pilot.
Brady
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Andrew,
As Brady said there’s really no way of knowing as 7700 is a general all purpose “emergency” transponder code. The fact there was an ambulance standing by does indicate something medical unless there was other emergency equipment as well (fire, etc) in which case it’s precautionary.
Squaking 7700 is actually not a requirement in the event of an emergency and most aircraft with simply declare an emergency with ATC.
Adam
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Andrew,
As others have said, 7700 is just the generic emergency squawk code so it could be anything. The Ambulance could for medical but most often, first responders (Including fire trucks) are called in out of precaution. Depends on how much the crew is able to relay their needs prior to arriving. I’m sure we will see something come out in the news soon or depending on what the event was, in an official NTSB report to come.
-Hannah
I have declared an emergency a few times, but have never squawked 7700. I always thought of that more for use by VFR aircraft, but it is technically correct to do so. This could range from a medical emergency, to a mechanical issue, to even a fuel issue. There are a wide range of possibilities.
Chris
Andrew,
If you know the flight number you could listen to the LiveATC recording from the archive. The hardest part is figuring out which frequencies to listen to, but I would keep it simple and just listen to tower just before the aircraft landed. See if the pilots or the controllers disclose any info about the situation as the pilots make their initial call to tower. Follow the call sign until they switch to ground. The conversations on ground might actually have more info than tower.
Tory