Multiple 7700s

[Smurfjet]

If you get the misfortune of having more than one emergency declared in your sector at the same time, what would you see on the scope? Or would it "mess" the system at all?

Happy new year!

[NextLeftAndCallGround]

Never seen it but it would mess my day up - never mind the system!

To answer your question though, with modern radar displays all you would get is 7700 or 'EMERG' next to the target (usually flashing - and if you're really lucky accompanied by an aural alarm of some sort).

[bagpuss lives]

Seen it once in the Vale of York AIAA with two military 7700's.

Both flashed "SOS" as they do on our tubes and that was about it.

Like that wasn't enough for the poor Lon Mil ATCO who was working them at the time <img src="tongue.gif" border="0">

[Duke of Burgundy]

On the London Terminal Control radar displays, provided that the Emergency Code is selected whilst the aircraft is within the coverage of the radar source selected at your console and the squawk has been code/call-sign converted, then the aircraft`s call-sign as well as the letters "SOS" are displayed in the label. Therefore if there is more than one emergency at a time the aircraft identities can be easily retained. <img src="cool.gif" border="0"> <img src="cool.gif" border="0">

If the Emergency Code is selected whilst the aircraft is hundreds of miles away, then all you get is the flashing "SOS" when it enters your radar cover.
<img src="confused.gif" border="0"> <img src="confused.gif" border="0">

[Spoonbill]

Its a frequent occurance in E Anglia and Suffolk, but as it's nearly always our cousins from across the water, and as they will rarely go anywhere but their bases at Mildenhall or Lakenheath (something to do with the quality of the doughnuts at Norwich and Coltishall I think :) ) , their intentions are eay to predict.

[romeowiz]

It would´nt mess the system - rather the controller. You would see two (or three or four....)flashing "E"s at the normal label, which would also be flashing to indicate the emergency.
In final Simulator training I overheard a colleague saying "stand-by, you´re number six in emergency traffic".
We seem to like the overkill!!

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

Smurfjet. I wonder whether you were really questioning whether two identical squawks could appear. Answer is yes - and you should see all the clockwork mice squawking 7000 on a sunny Sunday afternoon.... more of a nightmare than any "real" emergency!

[karrank]

A while ago I asked "Station near XXX squawking 7600 (radio fail) sqawk ident if you are recieving me." I thought that was fairly clear, but what happened was that 3 other aircraft near XXX took it as an instruction to dial up 7600 and did so. The system beeped dutifully and displayed the symbols for each case.

Exercising the flinch muscle was not a problem as fortunately the mighty Eurocats 2000 (as used in Australia) uses the same beeping noise for every situation that happens 67 times a day as for the alert above, so we are thoroughly de-sensitised to such alerts, and barely bother to look when the conflict alert goes off.