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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This might come as a surprise but US Law does not *require* a privately owned and operated aircraft to have a radio! In fact, there are whole sections of the FAR-AIM dedicated to radioless aircraft operations. Typically this is in case your radios fail mid-flight, but there are still people who will go up in their 1949 Piper Cub that has no radio.
The question is what airspace are you in, when you approach a border of a country then you are required to have an approved flight plan and you have to contact a specific controller to get permission to cross the border. If you fail to do that it could spell a lot of trouble for you. Typically if a plane fails to respond ATC will broadcast on a range of frequencies to find you, they will contact other pilots to see if they have heard the person on the radio, etc. It isn’t all that uncommon for a pilot to accidentally key in the wrong frequency and run silent for a few minutes. It isn’t exactly a panic inducing event.
But yeah, if you approach the American border in 2022 without contacting anyone you are asking for trouble.
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