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What is a mayday 7700 call? Distress signal from Qantas Flight 144 startling Australia when its engine failed on flight from Auckland to Sydney – explained
- The Qantas flight was halfway through its journey from Auckland
- It was due to land at Sydney Airport at 15:28 with an ambulance on site.
- The plane had descended to 20,000 feet, well below the planned 38,000-foot altitude.
A Qantas flight landed safely in Sydney after pilots issued a distress signal when an engine failed, and the nation collectively sighed with relief.
Dozens of emergency services vehicles arrived at Sydney International Airport on Wednesday afternoon after Auckland QF144, carrying 168 passengers, issued a mayday 7700 emergency call to air traffic control.
An emergency call is made when the aircraft is in a condition to be threatened by serious and/or imminent danger and requires immediate assistance, according to aviation expert Neil Hansford.
Once the call is issued, controllers alert aviation rescue, firefighting and emergency services with details on how to respond. They also provide assistance to pilots, she added.
Mayday situations can include engine failure, pressurization problems, other technical problems, or a medical emergency.
The term mayday is an internationally recognized emergency or distress call, used not only for aviation, but also on ships, or sometimes by emergency response personnel.
Flight Radar indicated that the flight, which is traveling from Auckland to Sydney, is currently over water.
The Qantas flight on approach to the airport. Appeared to land safely just before 3:30 p.m.
Meanwhile, air traffic controllers also use squawk codes, which are transponder codes used to identify aircraft in airspace.
In certain circumstances, the specific code assigned to a flight may be changed.
A squawk code for a flight will convert to 7700 in incidents when an aircraft is experiencing an emergency event.
That new number then appears on controller screens that track the flight along with vital information such as the aircraft’s speed and altitude.
This allows all controllers to easily identify that the aircraft is in an emergency and needs appropriate assistance.
The QF144 pilot raised fears after issuing an airborne distress call midway through the journey of just over three hours after he suffered engine failure.
The plane, a Boeing 737-800, has two engines, but can still fly on just one.
At 3:01 pm, the aircraft had descended to 20,000 feet, significantly below its planned altitude of 38,000 feet. However, it landed safely about 25 minutes later.
Emergency services on the scene at Sydney airport after a Qantas flight issued an emergency call.
After its safe landing, Qantas said the mayday had been downgraded to “possibly necessary assistance”.
An alert from emergency services read: ‘NSW ambulance paramedics are responding to a May Day alert issued by flight QF144 from Auckland. The plane will arrive at Sydney airport.
An aviation expert said: ‘QF144 has been in a gentle descent for 1.5 hours. At 21,000 feet currently doing 400 knots.
‘Normal would be 38,000 feet at about 450-480 knots. This may suggest that the plane is being serviced in Sydney.
More than 100,000 people were following the flight on Flight Radar as it approached Sydney.
Qantas is considered one of the safest airlines in the world without a fatal accident in more than 70 years.