JetBlue flight mistakenly sends hijack alert?

[Horn6721]

Shaark or someone please explain in your opinion what happened.
"
A JetBlue flight reportedly became unresponsive to tower communications while taxiing for departure at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City Tuesday evening, triggering a security scare.

Flight 1623 was scheduled to depart for Los Angeles at 7:30 p.m. ET, but stopped responding to air traffic control before takeoff.

The pilot had entered a hijack alert by mistake, which sent Port Authority Police Emergency Services unit aboard the plane, sources told The New York Daily News.

According to tweets from passengers, “heavily armed” police officers and FBI agents boarded the plane to investigate the security incident."

is this like the guy in Hawaii who 'accidentally' sent an incoming alert?

 

[horninchicago]

If it's an Airbus, you have to key in the code to "Squawk" any transponder code.

If it was inadvertent, the lack of radio communication taxiing to the runway would not be related to this. They also fly Embraers, which I am not familiar with. Not sure how you would accidentally punch in 7500 in the Airbus.

 

[Horn6721]

Thank you.
That is what I wondered, that it seemed too easy to make such a serious error.

 

[horninchicago]

No problem. I'm typed in the Airbus and currently fly it. Not sure how it could happen.

 

[ShAArk92]

ah the airbus. SMH.

Being NORDO (no radio) on the ground isn't that big of a deal. just stop. eventually others will understand something's wrong.

I might have even used my mobile device to call company and get a phone patch.

pretty rare set of circumstances to be NORDO in todays airliners, though ... at least 3 radios in most of 'em.

I'm not going to discuss codes. thanks for understanding despite the fact the info is out there.

I was NORDO in a S80 one time, though. Procedures followed ... worked great. Filed the required report. no one behind the cockpit door had a clue.

 

[Horn6721]

thanks Shaark
So is it that easy to mistakenly send a highjack signal?

 

[ShAArk92]

no ... but the human factor issue is that we tend to padlock on a given problem and fail to see the bigger picture when things "go wrong." I liken it to driving nails with an old school, claw hammer. Whack your thumb. if you try to "gut it out" and press, you ARE going to whack yer thumb AGAIN. Because the pain in your thumb is greater than the sight of the nail's noggin you're intending to strike. perspective and focus.

Operating in an airport like JFK is stressful on a good day. Lots of traffic, and lots of international "barely speaks english" traffic. Communication is a MAJOR issue there. When it's gone ... now we're "coloring outside the lines."

I'm not going to presume to know what the pilots knew/didn't know nor precisely when they did/didn't know. The design of scheduled air carrier operations puts us in an assembly-line mentality. If I were to actually do all the preflight planning necessary for the flight myself ... I'd operate one flight/day ... MAYBE ... but I "have people" which do the assembly of relevant information, make/file the flight plan, the weight/balance load, the passenger/cargo manifest ... fuel loading. Catering, cleaning ... repairing.

it's only with this large staff of people that I can dispatch the flight with less than 60 minutes review of all these things and actually do launch multiple flights in a given work day.

IDK why the guys would change their transponder code anyway. Those discreet codes are for airborne operations ... though clearly it raised the dander of law enforcement to receive this code while they were on the ground.

Stopping on a taxiway isn't a dangerous act. Anyhow. We live/learn, do the best we can and press on.