According to Flightradar24, a flight tracker, Air India plane from Delhi on Thursday sent out an emergency signal while passing over London.
It further stated that it is unknown why the emergency signal was sent out.
"Air India flight- AIC129- from Mumbai to London is squawking 7700, indicating a general emergency. Reason currently unknown", Flightradar posted on X.
Squawk codes are frequently heard in a variety of emergency scenarios, such as emergency landings.
Air Traffic Control (ATC) uses squawk codes to identify and track aircraft while they are in flight. These four-digit numbers, which range from 0000 to 7777, are distinct. While the ATC generates some of these codes at random, some have predefined values that represent particular situations. When the aircraft comes within range, the ATC creates a squawk code for it, which signals the pilot to let them access the aircraft's transponder. This is then relayed back to the ATC using the transponder.
On Thursday, Air India flight AIC129 squawked 7700, a universal transponder code that means the aircraft was having a general emergency and needed the ATC's immediate attention.
The most recent Air India incident follows 14 Indian flights that had to make an emergency landing recently for various reasons, including fictitious bomb threats.
A security threat was posted on social media on Wednesday regarding a Vistara flight that was travelling from Frankfurt to Mumbai. Following a safe landing at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport on Thursday morning, the aircraft was brought to an isolation bay for inspection.
An IndiGo flight from Istanbul was involved in the second incident on Thursday as well.
"Flight 6E 18, operating from Istanbul to Mumbai, received a security-related alert. Upon landing, the aircraft was isolated, and all passengers were safely disembarked," the airline said.
Bomb threats that were ultimately determined to be bogus calls were sent to two planes on Wednesday, one from IndiGo and one from Akasa Air.
The previous day, seven Indian flights got bomb threats, with at least two of them making emergency landings.
