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View Full Version : 121.5 call Saturday 21st April 15:38 London FIR

Julian Hensey
23rd Apr 2007, 08:39
Hi all,

I was flying at the weekend and 121.5 came up from London Control continually calling an aircraft - I am certain it was a Virgin aircraft - eventually they gave up and said "aircraft on 121.5 contact London on 134.750 if you hear this message".

The question to ATC people is I was always told if you have an emergency you should always call the distress in on the frequency of the control centre you are talking to first and only if you cannot raise them should you revert to 121.5 - I was interested what was going on here. Is this the best advice?

J
RV1
23rd Apr 2007, 11:26
Sounds like the controllers on 134.75 could have lost contact with the virgin aircraft. It's pretty common to put a call out on 121.5 to try to regain contact.
whowhenwhy
24th Apr 2007, 17:57
Julian, airborne security incidents are the biggest headache going for the Mil Airspace Control community (Area ATC and FC specializations). One of the many indicators that an ac is the subject of unlawful inteference is that it goes off freq. Unfortunately, many ac also get lost between freqs because they either missed the next control agency freq, dial it up wrong, or get a sleeping receiver (a strangely common occurrence). Civ ATC will ask London Centre to transmit on 121.500MHz to establish comms with the errant ac and get it to return to it's control freq - because all ac should be monitoring Guard. Please no-one re-start the argument about not being able to monitor VHF Guard in the UK because of too much traffic!

If you have an emergency and are receiving a service from an ATSU, then declare your emergency on that freq. If you are flying VFR and are without obvious known diversion choices in your local area, then you should declare your emergency on Guard with London Centre. PM me if you want to know a bit more, alternatively, give the guys a call down at West Drayton to ask for a visit. Diddly Dee will be along in a minute to give you the up to date gen (as he still works in there), I moved on a little while ago now. :ok: