I’ve seen movies in which pilots communicate with unauthorized planes in order to force them to go away/land nearby immediately.. etc.
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Do all planes from all countries have an universal radio frequency? (Even ones flying illegally?) How does it work?
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Former ATC here! Planes, including commercial planes, go NORDO (“no radio”) all the damn time, often because the pilot would (a) enter in the wrong frequency in their radio, (b) turn the radio volume all the way down, (c) who the hell knows?
Here’s how we would attempt to contact them, in order of increasing desperation:
1. Try calling them on the frequency they’re supposed to be on.
2. Try calling on “guard” (121.5 MHz).
3. Call the previous air traffic controller over the landline, and ask *them* to try and reach the NORDO plane on their frequency (in the event that the pilot merely forgot to switch to the new frequency).
4. Ask other nearby aircraft to try calling the NORDO aircraft on guard.
5. Let the shift supervisor know, who would contact the airline’s dispatch to try and contact the pilot in another way
6. At some point, things would potentially escalate and a fighter jet might get scrambled. I’ve never witnessed that though.
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