If you received nine, near-simultaneous squawk 7700 (general emergency) push notification alerts from the Flightradar24 app, you would be forgiven for assuming a possible problem with the app. But nine aircraft emergencies is exactly what happened late in the evening on 14 July near London. So what happened to send these aircraft away from London’s Gatwick Airport in such a state?
No nose-gear steering
London’s Gatwick Airport is the busiest single runway airport in the world, handling more than 263,000 aircraft movements per year. The airport’s main runway is 08R/26L. The taxiway adjacent to the main runway also functions as a backup runway (o8L/26R), but the two are never used at the same time. During this week, the main runway at Gatwick is closed during overnight hours.
On approach from Palma, BA2673 informed air traffic control that the aircraft, an Airbus A320, was experiencing a technical issue and would need to stop on the runway. The problem with the aircraft prevented the pilots from operating the nose gear steering, meaning the flight would need to be towed to the gate.
The aircraft remained disabled on the runway for approximately 30 minutes.
Holds and diversions
While BA2673 was blocking the runway at Gatwick, other flights bound for the airport were put into holding patterns. Because of the extended holds and the unknown amount of time needed to remove the aircraft from the runway, nine flights declared fuel emergencies in the course of diverting to alternate airports. Squawking 7700 is the internationally recognized transponder code for general emergency and alerts air traffic control to flights requiring priority assistance. A total of 14 flights diverted away from Gatwick to nearby airfields, including London-Stansted, London-Luton, London-Heathrow, Birmingham, and Bristol.
All nine aircraft squawking 7700 quickly climbed to the top of Flightradar24’s most tracked flights list, with more than 100,000 followers keeping track of the flights.
Gatwick reopens
Gatwick’s runway reopened for operations approximately 45 minutes after the British Airways flight touched down. Wizz Air flight 5736 was the first to land at 00:02 UTC. BA2591 from Verona was the tenth aircraft to declare a fuel emergency, but was able to land at Gatwick as intended just after Wizz Air.
Get notified when a flight squawks 7700
Want to receive a notification from Flightradar24 when an aircraft squawks 7700? In the Flightradar24 app, tap Alerts, then toggle the 7700 alert to on to receive a notification whenever a flight declares an emergency.
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