Is it true that pilots have certain tone sequences to alert the flight attendants of emergencies, or when they've reached cruising altitude? Are they universal or particular to each airline?

--AA777

You might want to do a search on this topic, it has been done before. Having said that, I never do! I prefer replies. Where I was, 1 tone for bring me coffee (or contact the flight deck- no hurry), 3 tones for prepare for takeoff, and 5 tones for an emergency. Other airlines may differ...........

I've flown Delta for 15 years now and I think (could be wrong) that three beeps is when we have reach 10,000 and your free to use electronic devices but not free to move around, also three on the approach means to take seats and prepare for landing, please let me know if I'm wrong.

The call from the cockpit to the cabin has a particular tone or sound all its own. On some aircraft, it's a two tone (high - low) sound. It's not the same as the passenger bells -- from either a seat or a lav.

An airline may set up a specific sequence of chimes for example, a double call bell from the cockpit may mean you've gone through 10,000 feet.

A single chime or bell from the cockpit, simply means for the F/A to answer on the interphone.

It's almost universal that 6 bells (call bell chimes from the cockpit) means an emergency. In other words, if a F/A from El Al was riding on a United flight and heard six bells from the cockpit, she would know there was an emergency.

Well just based on what has been written, no airline seems to be the same...

AA777MIA:

Well just based on what has been written, no airline seems to be the same...

I think the thing that's closest to universal is the 6 bells for an emergency, but I'm not sure about that. I think that one is used right many carriers.

From my flying days- six was an emergency, three was final, two was arrival (I think I've got those reversed)....I need to find my training manual and review. 

To my knowledge, all the different airlines beeps have different meaning.

For example, on BA, I recall hearing 3 beeps just prior to t/o whilst on WN I only hear one prior to t/o.

But I have heard that before about what piedmontgirl said.

Mirrodie:

Each airline has a different sequence of bells for different things. The F/As are trained to hear those bells....and hear them we do. I've actually dreamed that I heard a call bell and sat straight up in bed, wide awake, in the wee small hours.

As nearly as I can tell, the six bells for an emergency is as close as it gets to being universal.

To be more precise, I believe it's 3 sets of high-low chimes that signals an emergency and is used my by most airlines. We also use other signals other than just chimes, such as different color lights near the interphones or cycling of emergency lights, etc... also, different a/c have different systems and what may be used on one aircraft, cant be done on another, so you have to learn all these different signals... it becomes second nature...

JetMARC:

At the two carriers I worked for, we used six high/low chimes for an emergency. It sounded as if it was never going to stop. On airplanes that didn't have a double chime from the cockpit, it was six singles. The pilots were trained to do six and that was something that didn't vary from airplane to airplane.

Thing is, whether it's bing-bong repeated over and over, or bing bing repeated over and over, you pretty much figure out you've got an emergency.

What I DO remember-When you you have too many bings and bongs in a row- it's NOT a GOOD THING! Like PiedmontGirl said: You just know!  

6 high-low chimes, for a total of 12 'dings' seems too much - you'd go answer the PA and wouldnt be able to hear anything from the flight deck between the chimes, commotion, and pilots... We simply get three sets of high-lows plus a flashing red light next to our interphones if its from the cockpit.....

JetMARC:

.....you'd go answer the PA and wouldnt be able to hear anything from the flight deck between the chimes, commotion, and pilots.....

We pointed that out many times to no avail.

FA's prepare for departure...verbal call out at least 1 min. prior to blast off- I'll include a salutation and this is what the flight is going to be like for the pax also at that time. A chime when passing through 10K going up.... a chime when passing through 10K going down... 2 chimes when doing the before landing check (on final).