"Phantoms Of the Skies: Rogue radio operators threaten air safety"

September 11, 2000 issue

Phantoms Of the Skies
Rogue radio operators threaten air safety
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.”
By Mark Hosenball
NEWSWEEK MAGAZINE


         September 11 issue —  The feds jokingly nicknamed their suspect the
“Roanoke Phantom,” but there was nothing funny about his antics. For nearly
six weeks in the early ’90s, an unidentified man pretending to be an
air-traffic controller transmitted bogus radio messages to airplanes taking
off and landing at the Roanoke, Va., regional airport.

         ON ONE OCCASION, the Phantom instructed an aircraft to climb to a
higher-than-authorized altitude and then repeated the order four times when
the pilot raised questions. During another hoax, he pretended to be a pilot
in trouble and broadcast a Mayday distress call. Eventually investigators
from the FBI and the Federal Communications Commission used sophisticated
monitoring gear to track down the phantom. He turned out to be an unemployed
janitor using a $500 mail-order radio. In 1995 he was sent to prison for 10
years.

        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.

Attached Graphic:  Aerial impostors: hackers are causing an alarming menace
in air traffic control

phantom.jpg