Certain types of operations — EMS helicopter flying, for example — often use a color-coding system to ascribe risk levels for flying on a given day. As you might guess, green means good flying weather, red usually means poor weather or a combination or poor weather and darkness and yellow means caution.
Alpha, Bravo, Charli, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliett, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, PaPa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, Whiskey, X-ray, Yankee, Zulu. Pilots pronounce numbers similar to regular English, with a few exceptions: The number three (3) is pronounced “tree.”
The ICAO phonetic alphabet has assigned the 26 code words to the 26 letters of the English alphabet in alphabetical order: Alfa, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliett, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, Whiskey, X-ray, Yankee, Zulu.
Hearing Code Red at the terminal typically means there's a confirmed security risk, such as a bomb or terrorist. Airport security and police are almost immediately mobilized to deal with the situation.
A Code Blue announcement provides an immediate security awareness alert to all airport workers that a security concern is perceived by another airport worker and the report is being investigated. Don't call the Communications Center to ask what to do – they'll be very busy.
On the map a coloured line shows the route of the aircraft. Purple colours indicate cruising altitudes. White colours indicate the plane is on the ground. As a plane takes off, the colours change from white, to yellow, to green, to light blue, to dark blue and finally to purple.
0000 — A generic code that is not assigned and should not be used. 1200 — VFR aircraft. The default code for all flights–if you aren't asked to set anything else, you should set 1200. 7500 — Hijacking. 7600 — Voice radio failure.
In short, SQUAWK refers to the communication that comes from an aircraft's transponder — or the radio equipment that a plane has that allows it to communicate with the radar system of air traffic control on the ground.
Aircraft in an emergency, who are not receiving an air traffic service should set the transponder to EMERGENCY (Mode 3A Code 7700) as part of their initial actions. "A pilot may select Mode 3A Code 7700 whenever he has specific reason to believe that this would be the best course of action" [ ICAO Doc 8168 Vol 1.]
The International Air Transport Association's (IATA) Location Identifier is a unique 3-letter code (also commonly known as IATA code) used in aviation and also in logistics to identify an airport.
ZK is used for North Korea. ZM is used for Mongolia. ZZZZ is a special code which is used when no ICAO code exists for the airport. It is often used by helicopters not operating at an aerodrome.
Airlines typically assign the return flight number as one digit higher than the outbound flight. For example, JetBlue has a flight from JFK to LAX that's JBU523. When it returns to JFK, the flight number is JBU524. Generally, the lower the flight number, the more important that route is to the airline.
Squawking 7700 in an emergency
The most well know of these is the code 7700. This is used to indicate an emergency of any kind. A pilot will enter this when in an emergency situation - either instructed by ATC after declaring an emergency or without communication if there is no time.
Wake turbulence poses a major risk to other aircraft, so pilots and ATC use the term “heavy” in radio transmissions as a reminder that the aircraft's wake may be dangerous to others passing behind or below the flightpath of these larger-mass aircraft.
Some squawk codes are reserved, such as 7700 (emergency), 7600 (communication failure), 7500 (hijacking), 1202 (glider), 1200 (VFR), etc. One of these, 7777, is apparently used for "military interception." What does this mean in the United States?
Code 7400 may be displayed by unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) when the control link between the aircraft and the pilot is lost. Lost link procedures are programmed into the flight management system and associated with the flight plan being flown.
Series 20 — Code 2000 is to recognize an aircraft that has not received instructions from the air traffic control units to operate the transponder.
what does a red plane mean on the app? Red icons indicate aircraft that are squawking 7600 or 7700.
Why are some aircraft shown as blue, yellow or red on the map? Blue: Aircraft displayed as blue icons are currently being tracked via satellite. Satellites are collecting the ADS-B signals from aircraft and transmitting them to the Flightradar24 network.
Gray: The flight is scheduled and there isn't an additional status available. Green: The flight is estimated to be on time or arrived at time. Orange: The flight is estimated to be delayed or was delayed.
20 Minutes Before Takeoff: Two dings in a row, the first a higher tone, repeated twice. This is an intercom call, indicating that one crewmember wishes to speak to another. 15 Minutes Before Takeoff: Single ding. This is a call from the flight deck (cockpit) to the flight attendants asking them to pick up the phone.
A Bravo is generally that airspace from the surface to 10,000 feet MSL surrounding the nation's busiest airports.