The Roanoke Phantom, it seems, was a global trendsetter. Other impostors are now invading the airwaves with frightening regularity. Although there are no worldwide statistics on air-traffic hoaxes, Britain appears to be facing the most serious problem. As of the end of July, British air-safety authorities had recorded 20 complaints about bogus air-traffic-control messages this year, compared with 18 cases for all of last year, says a spokeswoman for Britain’s Civil Aviation Authority. The government issued an urgent bulletin this summer warning of an “increase in the malicious use” of radio frequencies by “persons who deliberately impersonate air-traffic-control officers.”
Hoaxes in the United States apparently are more sporadic, but the problem is “very serious,” says Eliot Brenner, an assistant administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration. “It happens from time to time… We go after them to the fullest extent.” A source at Reagan National Airport said controllers in the tower last year had to fend off a hoaxer who briefly broadcast a string of bogus takeoff and landing clearances; two sources said the impostor, who officials say was never caught, sounded like “a kid.”
In this age of pimply computer hackers, that’s very possible. FCC investigator John Winston says that someone with basic electronic skills could build a pirate radio using plans that could be found in a public library and components that are available on the open market. Pilots and controllers communicate on publicly known frequencies and do not scramble their messages. They do use jargon, but a determined impersonator could learn the lingo by listening to real transmissions. According to London’s Sunday Times, a pilot preparing to land at an airport in the British Midlands was duped just last month by an impostor. After genuine air-traffic controllers realized the plane might be in danger, a real controller shouted at the pilot: “Respond to my voice only!” Disaster was avoided. Officials told NEWSWEEK that a criminal investigation is still underway; nobody knows if or when the Midlands Phantom might strike again.
