Originally Posted by mizzou65201
I have been told by pilot friends there is "secret" ATC phraseology to indicate a 7500 situation when it is impossible to squawk 7500 (such as, the hijackers tell you not to squawk 7500 ;-) ) I would imagine companies have their own internal phraseology for over-the-radio or ACARS usage to either confirm or deny what's going on in the cockpit.
That's true (and this may be one of the few things that hasn't made it on to the internet - I can tell you it has something to do with the callsign). And sometimes that doesn't work. As in the case with the flights on 9/11, the pilots simply stopped responding (probably dead already) and transponders were turned off. Watching to see what happens with the plane's route then becomes the tipoff.
Last edited by l etoile; Jun 7, 2005 at 3:03 pm