False Alarm: Hijacking Alert From Singapore Airlines Sparks Scare

Singapore Airlines

IATA/ICAO Code:

SQ/SIA

Airline Type:

Full Service Carrier

Hub(s):

Singapore Changi Airport

Year Founded:

1972

Alliance:

Star Alliance

CEO:

Goh Choon Phong

Country:

Singapore

According to The Daily Mail, a Singapore Airlines flight traveling from Los Angeles to its home country briefly squawked the emergency code used to indicate an aircraft being hijacked. This sparked fear on the ground, with several hoping for it to be a false alarm and nothing more. Thankfully though, it does seem to be a technical malfunction as the aircraft in question landed safely at Singapore Changi International Airport (SIN) just a few hours ago. Let’s look at what exactly happened on SIA flight SQ 37.

Sequence of events

A Singapore Airlines Airbus A350-900 operating flight SQ 37 from LAX-SIN left the United States west coast just after midnight on June 11th, local time. The Airbus aircraft operating flight SQ 37 was registered as 9V-SJB and is a little over a year old. According to data from ch-aviation, 9V-SJB has logged just over 3,600 flight hours and 409 flight cycles till the end of February 2022.

The aircraft's transponder sent out the Squawk 7500 code while flying over the Pacific Ocean. Photo: Flightradar24.com

The SIA plane left LAX normally, but squawked a 7500 code while crossing the Pacific Ocean not too far from its departure airport. This led several avgeeks and aviation watchers to take notice of the ordeal and write about it on social media. However, the code was only briefly flashed, which indicated that it was probably a technical glitch or a mistake. The flight continued normally for the rest of its 16-hour trans-Pacific journey and touched down at SIN on Sunday morning.

Squawk codes

For those not in the know, Squawk codes are four-digit numbers used for effective communication between the aircraft and the air-traffic controller. All aircraft are assigned a unique Squawk code that pilots must input into their transponder before departure. Still, there are certain ICAO-assigned emergency codes that can be used by any aircraft to explain the nature of their emergency to the ground controllers.

Perhaps the most common Squawk code is 7700, used to indicate an emergency with the aircraft. This code can be Squawked by the pilot of any plane with or without prior communication to the ATC. Similarly, the Squawk code 7500 is used to indicate a hijacked plane. This code is especially useful as chances are, the pilots may not be able to verbally communicate the situation to the ATC in case of an actual hijacking.

Singapore Airlines Airbus A350-941 — Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying.

Hijackings and Singapore Airlines

Singapore Airlines doesn’t have a long history of hijackings. The carrier has had only one so far; of course, that is one more than the ideal number. An SIA Airbus A310 going from Malaysia to Singapore with 125 souls onboard was hijacked in 1991 by four Pakistani terrorists. The hijackers demanded the release of political prisoners from jail and wanted to take the aircraft to Sydney, Australia. However, the plane was only fueled for the 50-minute journey it was scheduled to operate and had to land at SIN for more fuel.

After long negotiations, Singaporean authorities stormed the plane and neutralized all four Pakistani nationals. Interested readers can check out Simple Flying’s detailed account of the happenings on that day.