Commercial aircraft use four‑digit octal squawk codes for ATC identification
Based on · First reported
Sources
- Every commercial flight receives a four‑digit code before it pushes back from the gate, and the code appears on air traffic control radar screens wherever the aircraft travels.
- The squawk code is not a decimal number and never includes the digits 8 or 9 because it uses octal notation, a base‑8 system where each digit runs from 0 to 7, a practice inherited from a World War II system originally designed for a different purpose, and the term “squawk” comes from the British Royal Air Force’s wartime Identification Friend or Foe system.
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