Pooh Bear wrote in message ...
Howard Berkowitz wrote:

Hijack is 7500. For some reason I haven't fathomed, the FAA ATC
procedure is to contact the aircraft by radio and ask "Sir, please
confirm you are squawking 7500."

Oh great ! What presence of mind ! What berk thought that one up ?

someone has a good presence of mind. let look at this:

"'Aircraft X', confirm your squawk, 'Center X'". thats taken what 7
words, how long does it take to say ?

now consider the following:
1. when an emergency code is squawked, say for example a 7500 squawk,
the controller doesnt leap in his chair exclaiming "A Hijack! A
Hijack! what do i do?" for someone else say, "****! get the president
on the phone!" rather:

an emergency squawk initiates a set procedure, which will involve the
controller requiring radio silence from everyone else on that freq.
and will likely provide an alternate freq. for everyone else to change
to and other aircraft will be vectored from the vicinity. the
controllers will implement an action plan or rather set procedure
depending on what the situation requires.

2. transponders have a couple of different methods of entereing the
squawk code, some have numeric keypads, others have rotating dials.
some also have a feature to shortcut to a specific code.

accidental input of a specific code, has happened, does happen and
will happen. Personally speaking, durin the very first days of
instruction, a few moons ago now, i was advised to enter transponder
codes from the back first, to prevent any accidental emergency code
squwaks (with the rotational dial transponder its possible as you are
winding through the numbers to trigger an emergency code) and so set
off the alam bells at the handling control center.

3. controllers are pretty capable people, believe it or not, and their
familiarity with their daily profession enables them to make accurate
judgement calls on many situations.

A controller asking an aircraft transmitting an emergency squawk to
confirm, is going to get perhaps only a few alternative responses:

- the pilot responds with "'Center X', thats a negative on the 'x'
squawk, we're good here, please confirm correct squawk, thanks for
the heads up "aircraft x'"

- the controller gets no response, which is an indication as to a
problem.

- an unusual response occurs, which again is an indication as to a
problem.

now, just before people go off on a tangent that the pilot could have
a gun to his head and is lectured on how to respond, controllers are
pretty adept at working things out for themselves. a controller can
pretty much figure out if you have a problem with something from vocal
cues. furthermore pilot are pretty adept at dealing with problems,
there was one instance during a hijack that the pilots keyed the mic
during the hijackers vocal outbursts in the cockpit so not only could
the control center hear, but also it was on the tapes. thats not
mentioning the basic issue of has the aircraft deviated from the
flight plan, has it changed heading or altitude ?

listening to the tower tapes of an emergency situation, before all the
other pilots on the frequency changed off to the alternative assigned
frequency, there were a few blind transmissions from other pilots just
quickly and simply "good luck guys, god be with you" though i am not
particularly religious nor sentimental, it's something to give to a
flight crew in a ****ty situation.

as another side note, a friend of mine worked out rather rapidly
during flight that he lost the ability to transmit, could recieve
fine, but not transmit. which of course led him to input 7600
transponder code. the controller obviously came back to attempt to
make communication (bear in mind the controller only knows its lost
comms) and at the controllers call attempts, he hit ident. the
controller pretty much worked out rather rapidly, that the pilot could
hear and not talk, and so an easy day was had by all, as the
controller issued him with vectors, confirming by replying with the
ident.

so, after considering the above, is it more appropriate to say 7 words
and confirm the situation, or go all out into full blown emergency
situation. presence of mind yes. berk, no.


Has it occurred that just maybe, here and there, a hijacker just might
not notice the transponder code was changed?

which is irrelevant either way. if it hasnt been changed he will
continue with his plan, if it has, he will continue with his plan. but
the ability remains to provide a non verbal indication of an emergency
situation.


Mercuns just love to screw up the admin way.

hardly.



Graham