Flightradar Storm Isha part 2

[IceWhites]

Continue here if you’d like :)

[saturday AM grump]

The above sort of typifies why many pilots and cabin crew have, putting it politely a bit of an issue with flight radar turning 7700 squawks into a form of entertainment.

Usually, certainly in UK airspace, 7700 is down to a medical emergency, so you may well have cabin crew working to keep someone alive long enough for the pilots and ATC to get the aircraft on the ground and the ill passenger into the hands of the medics. The couple of occasions I was on the airborne end of a 7700 the ill passengers survived, I know some colleagues who weren’t so fortunate.

It can also quite possibly be someone in real trouble and scared **less such as a light aircraft, maybe even lost and in bad weather, wondering if they are going to survive to see the end of the day…

I’m not sure that won’t stop the urge to chase 7700 but it might be worth bearing in mind…

[/saturday AM grump]

FWIW I agree with you and those pilots and cabin crew, @notimagain

I also agree. I clicked on it as it popped up, but agree that they oughtn't be a “pop-up” event. I felt very uncomfortable after watching it knowing that real people were involved while I watched a picture on a screen.

Why is it a thing? Does anyone know why it's a feature?

It's a tricky subject TBH, watching an airliner squawking 7700 and as a result getting priority is one thing, but you could just as easily end up watching something tragic such as this:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/643e408722ef3b000c66f3aa/Mudry_Cap_10B_G-BXBU_06-23.pdf

I was on the flight from antayla to Manchester, ended up at lyon Pilot lied said accomodatiòn would be provided. After a scary flight we were dumped with no accomodation no information we got home over 14 hours late . Awful experience 😢

I was on this flight it was awful. We were dumped at Lyon no accomodation no manager. People slept on the floor the airport got home Next day 4pm never flying again !

I was on this flight it was awful left with no accomodation no help no staff there ? Got home 14 hours late slept 1 hour on the floor of the airport was awful

I note he didn't have his transponder on until he had declared an emergency and was instructed to do so by ATC. But that's irrelevant to the point at issue.

I mentioned upthread that I watch Air Crash Investigation, so am aware of what the passengers in an emergency might be going through. But it's one thing to watch a reconstruction in a programme which has the purpose of finding out what went wrong, how this was discovered, and how air safety was improved because of recommendations arising. (Although the cabin scenes are unnecessay in my opinion, and in bad taste if so.) It's quite another to watch, even as a tiny moving picture on a screen and a set of flight data, an actual accident in progress.

There's a balloon! 🎈 never seen one of those before. Over in the USA, it's being followed so can be found on the top 10.

OOOh - wonder if it is one of those Chinese "weather" balloons 😂🎈🎈🎈

That balloon has travelled a long and wiggly path, wonder how long they can stay up.

😮😮 I'd forgotten about those Chinese weather balloons! 🤣

Just clicked on a mid-air Newcastle-Madrid - most of the flight trail was an alarming scarlet! Presumably because it was flying so high - 43,000 ft...Owned by Atmospherica Aviation so presumably doing some research or something?

They just seem to be operators of private jets -

Private Flights / Private Jet | Atmospherica

Their jets have a max altitude of 45000 ft..

I was guessing from the company name, but I guess it derives from the fact that they fly high, not what they do.

The modern biz jets tend to fly as a matter of routine slightly higher than normal commercial traffic, and are certainly capable of going high early.

Just for context though the 747-400 was cleared for Flight Level 450 ( roughly speaking 45,000 feet), a few other of the big twins FL 430 (I've certainly been in a 777 at 43,000), but they need to be at fairly lightweight to go up there so you rarely see it.

With reference to previous posts, biz jets and high flying the rich and famous in the US have woken up and are on their way to work..every single biz jet in the image is at or above 45000 feet, the high flyer is the G7 over Lake Superior at 49000….

(FWIW that image is a capture off the ADS-B Exchange tracker with altitude filtering in to remove all the commercial traffic)

Been watching a US military plane JAKE17 that seems to be flying parallel to the Russian border - from Poland, up through the Baltic states then continuing through Finland up into the Artctic circle and back down again. Currently over the Balticparallel with Lithuania.

It's an RC-135W Rivett Joint...Almost certainly eavesdropping and recording the electronic signals from things like communications links and radar units on the Russian side of the various borders.