Jet 2 flight ‘EXS49Y’ inbound from Dalaman has been diverted to London Stansted Airport, due to a suspected bomb threat.

Two RAF Typhoon fighter jets have escorted the airliner to Stansted.

The Royal Air Force has been asked for comment.

What does it mean to ‘Squawk 7700’?

Captain Ken Hoke is a Boeing 757/767 captain for a package express airline. He also runs the website AeroSavvy and had this to say.

“Declaring an emergency means the crew determines they have an ‘urgency’ or ‘distress’ situation. ‘Urgency’ means the crew is concerned about the safety of the flight and needs timely (but not necessarily immediate) assistance. A ‘distress’ condition means that the flight is in serious and/or imminent danger and requires immediate assistance.

If a crew resets their transponder to the emergency code of 7700 (squawking 7700), all air traffic control facilities in the area are immediately alerted that the aircraft has an emergency situation. It’s up to the crew to let ATC know what the exact situation is. It may be an aircraft problem, medical issue, or something else.”

Not all emergencies are as urgent as portrayed in the movies

Providing further insight into how an emergency is handled onboard an aircraft, Capt Hoke told Flightradar24:

“In some cases, a crew may not elect to change their transponder to 7700 (it’s not required). If I’m talking to Chicago Approach and have a problem, I’ll tell them the problem, declare an emergency over the radio and get vectors to land immediately. In most ‘emergencies’ we aren’t in a big hurry. Unless it’s smoke, fire, or low on fuel, we can usually take our time to evaluate the problem. If we are in a cruise flight and get a warning message of some sort, we may spend several minutes working the problem with a checklist.”

The Royal Air Force also told me that a 7700 squawk is relatively common. Enabling 7700 allows ATC controllers to safely vector an aircraft to the nearest airport or, in this instance, an RAF base.

 

Avatar photo
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison
Subscribe
Notify of
guest
10 Comments
oldest
newest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Liam Q
Liam Q
2 years ago

Aircraft type is incorrect.

The aircraft was actually an Airbus A321-211.

Despite this error, hopefully this was an empty threat.

Daniele Mandelli
Daniele Mandelli
2 years ago

Standard location for this sort of thing, suspected hijacks, and so on.

Parked on the same spot on arrival. Pre arranged.

Esteban
Esteban
2 years ago

That was really a convoluted post. Not sure what the 7700 squawk thing had to do with anything concerning a bomb threat. And the source for the bomb threat was what? Not exactly a linear post.

Airborne
Airborne
2 years ago
Reply to  Esteban

Not exactly a linear poster!

Mark B
Mark B
2 years ago
Reply to  Esteban

I suspect the title contained all the information available. Being unable to elaborate is only mitigated by the benefit of educating the few people who visit this site which do not yet know how an emergency is declared.

louise
louise
2 years ago

pointless reading that, why report on something without having all the facts to report on first, must be so bored and nothing to write about. get outside and report how real people the public are struggling to eat each day under this disgrace of a government
report on things we can learn from, this is utter bs.

Daniele Mandelli
Daniele Mandelli
2 years ago
Reply to  louise

Nice rant.

I take it you object to other sites on cars, sports, engineering, science, and anything else not related to the cost of living crisis caused by the knock on effects of Covid, the war in Ukraine, and which this disgrace of a government has spent hundreds of billions against?

You want to learn ( I seriously doubt it on a defence related website ) then read the posters. Lots of knowledgeable folk.