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Originally posted by DeltAlum
Interesting as NPR pointed out this morning that the Russians didn't stop all air traffic as we did on 9/11.
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For such a vast country, Russia doesn't have much of a commercial airline infrastructure as the United States. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the mega-monolithic airline Aeroflot was broken up into much smaller and independent carriers. Aeroflot today flies only international routes, largely with Western aircraft.
The independent airlines, saddled with grossly inefficient older Russian-built aircraft and cut-throat competition for the few viable air routes don't seem to last very long in business.
In case anyone's wondering, the international hijack distress transponder code is 7500 (for a radio failure it's 7600 and the general emergency distress signal is 7700). Pilots are drilled never to select these codes unless in an actual emergency.
There are other methods to identify your aircraft on the ground as hijacked; one being taxiing around the airport with full flaps down or landing lights full on. This why you see airplanes quickly pull up their flaps and turn off their landing lights as soon as they clear the runway. There is a duress code pilots use when communicating via radio as well (that's generally kept confidential).