[Community Media Association] Pirates grounded as pilots tune in to wicked sounds over Birmingham

[Chris Hewson]

The Guardian - May 3, 2005

"Pirates grounded as pilots tune in to wicked sounds over Birmingham"

Laura Smith


Pilots coming in to land over Birmingham have been greeted with an
unexpected sound over their headphones: garage music.

The dance music, which has a loud, thumping and repetitive bassline,
threatened to drown out vital instructions from air traffic
controllers as passenger jets made their descent into Birmingham
international airport.

Officers from the communications watchdog, Ofcom, along with West
Midlands police, shut down the musical distraction after tracing it to
a pirate radio station transmitter atop a city centre tower block.

The "cobbled together" transmitter and aerials, which broadcast over
two frequencies, were seized in a raid on a flat in the Highgate area
on Wednesday. It is thought that the DJ and the pirate station's
studio, which is believed to operate nearby, have yet to be found.

An Ofcom spokesman said it had launched the raid after receiving
complaints from pilots. "This is not just some guys having a bit of
fun and trying to get their break in radio," he said. "This has the
potential to cause massive problems for essential services."

But a spokeswoman for the National Air Traffic Services stressed the
music had not posed a threat to passenger safety.

"These were short bursts of interference which did not upset our
operations or instructions to pilots," she said.

"It did not threaten safety because we have got safety procedures in
place and we can switch to other frequencies if we have to. We did not
need to in this case."

The plane crews whose flightpaths took them over Birmingham were
warned of the specific locations where there was a risk of
interference.

The Ofcom spokesman said inspectors had used directional receivers to
locate the transmitter. "There was not a safety issue in this case
although we take these situations seriously," he said.

Birmingham is not the only airport to have been affected by
interference from pirate radio stations. Three years ago, the pilot of
a passenger jet coming in to land at Heathrow was forced to switch to
a back-up frequency when instructions from ground control were drowned
out by dance and garage music from a transmitter in south London.

The station disrupted air traffic control for more than six hours
until an enforcement team shut it down. Pilots from City airport in
east London have also complained of music in their headphones.

www.guardian.co.uk/airlines 
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