PiAware Showing Flight Out of Charlotte in Trouble

[RocketMan]

My PiAware setup is showing American Airlines flight, AAL2007, is having a problem.  Found it when they squawked 7600 on their transponder.
The flight was bound for Pensacola, FL, but as of 0955 the Airbus A321 is holding at 7100 feet in a racetrack pattern west of Charlotte.  This is likely to work checklists and burn off fuel to reach a safe landing weight before returning to Charlotte.  Don't know what the issue is.  If I had time I'd fire up one of my SDRs and listen in on the approach frequency for Charlotte.

[RocketMan]

AAL2007 has left the holding pattern and is now being vectored back to Charlotte.  Speed and altitude are both decreasing as the flight heads back.

[RocketMan]

Flight disappeared just about where one would expect prior to landing from the south at Charlotte.  The PiAware system can track flights almost to landing from that direction.  I'm sure they got down safely.

[zxcvbob]

Google says the flight was diverted to Pensacola.  Will arrive in  Charlotte an hour late.  The source says Flightaware.

I've never heard of PiAware before

[RocketMan]

Google is incorrect.  I was able to follow the flight in real-time on the flight tracking page that maps course and speed.  I could see the actual flight path of the Airbus A321, follow its loops in the holding pattern while the pilots worked their checklists and burned off fuel.  Then the flight left the holding pattern and flew vectors back to Charlotte, its entire course visible in real-time* on the map.
For much of the flight my system was picking up AAL2007 ADS-B data directly with zero message delay.  It was only after the flight dropped below about 2500 feet that my system lost direct reception and relied on feeds from stations closer to CLT.
PiAware is a flight info system built with a Raspberry Pi and a FlightAware USB FlightStick Pro.  It is a way for hobbyists to feed data to the FlightAware system.  When you register a PiAware system with FlightAware they give you a free enterprise account that allows access to some neat stuff.

Edit:

* There is actually a minute or two delay in the "real-time" display as the FlightAware system gathers flight data from feeders and generates a tracking page
Corrected the version of the FlightStick that I use.  It's actually the FlightStick Pro with a built-in preamp and bandpass filter for 1090 MHz.

[dogmush]

https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/local/flight-emergency-charlotte-airport-american-airlines/275-a39a578d-862e-4991-b6eb-84ae4daccc9f

No added info, just that they declared an Emergency and returned to CLT. Hopefully they'll update the story when American responds.

Entertainingly, I'm flying through CLT on AAL on Sunday.

[Northwoods]

Since it's not a Boeing I'm sure we'll hear nothing.

[RocketMan]

Since it's not a Boeing I'm sure we'll hear nothing.

Would not be surprised.

[Boomhauer]

Interesting. 7600 is the transponder code for radio failure. 7700 is the general emergency squawk, 7500 for a hijacking.