10-77 and 7700

[Teller1900]

Wow, this thread has been 10-77'd.

This maybe asinine, but the discussion of 10 codes made me think of this, and rather than hijacking my own thread, I thought I'd start a new one.

So apparently 10-77 is (some) police departments' code for a hijacking. 7700 and 7500 is aviation for emergency and hijacking, respectively. Is there any sort of historical significance to the number seven indicating distress? (Morse code, semaphore, ancient robot language?) Or is it just coincidence and I really need to go to sleep?

 

[Henning]

This maybe asinine, but the discussion of 10 codes made me think of this, and rather than hijacking my own thread, I thought I'd start a new one.

So apparently 10-77 is (some) police departments' code for a hijacking. 7700 and 7500 is aviation for emergency and hijacking, respectively. Is there any sort of historical significance to the number seven indicating distress? (Morse code, semaphore, ancient robot language?) Or is it just coincidence and I really need to go to sleep?

Not in the Code of Signals...

 

[poadeleted20]

Actually, the original hijack code was 3100. I believe it was changed to 7500 when they set up the automatic alarms for 7700 and added the 7600 "lost comm" code. Therefore, I don't think it has anything to do with the emergency services' 10-code system.

 

[ausrere]

Around here, there are very few agencies who use 10-77 as a hijack code. 10-77 in this area is codes for "ETA" and "Stake Out". So you can see how confusing that would be if someone started screaming "10-77!" on the radio..we'd wonder what all the excitement was over an ETA or sitting for hours watching something/someone.