BC Tam 2 Report post Posted February 20, 2010 Plane spotters from Bristol detained in India Two plane spotters from Bristol have been detained in India on suspicion of spying. Stephen Hampton, from Keynsham, and Steven Ayres, from St George, sparked suspicion after asking a Delhi hotel for a room overlooking a runway. The pair were carrying an air traffic control scanner, laptop, binoculars and cameras. Dan Norris MP is liaising with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to try to bring the pair home. Mr Norris, MP for North East Somerset, said of 46-year-old Mr Hampton: "His family are distraught, ever so anxious and worried, understandably, that he can come home soon. "My job is to try and make that happen with the support of the Foreign Office and our diplomats and officials." The railway worker's mother, Eileen Cock, said he had travelled all over the world photographing aircraft. Mrs Cock said she had been expecting her son to arrive home last Tuesday, but received a call from one of his friends to say he and a friend had been detained at the hotel at which they were staying. She said the scanning kit he was carrying was used to track incoming aircraft so they could photograph them at the best moment. "He was under hotel arrest then for two days," Mrs Cock said. "In the meantime I've been having various bits of information, both from Stephen and his friends, as to what was happening. "The next thing I knew he rang me from a vehicle on his way to what I believe was a foreign registration office. "Then, in great distress, he called me again (to say) that they had been taken to this place and that he didn't know what it was." Mrs Cock said she believed her son was now at a deportation centre in Delhi. "I had a rather frantic call the next day to say 'what could I do to please help him out?'," she said. "I'm just going from minute to minute, hour to hour, waiting for the telephone to ring." from the BBC Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ashmil Abd Ghani 0 Report post Posted February 20, 2010 So sad to hear and know this kind of story...Just ask for a room pun kena... Airport now become so sensitive area, especially on high risk terrorist activity country... Can't play play around that compound anymore like those days... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kianhong 0 Report post Posted February 20, 2010 Indeed a worrying news. The following article probably give a better picture on what actually happened from a spotter's perspective. Bangalore Aviation : British plane spotters arrested in Delhi for indulging in an aviation friendly activity FYI, beside radio scanner, they used AirNav Radarbox which in some country is illegal to operate. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
fablee 0 Report post Posted February 20, 2010 Indeed a worrying news. The following article probably give a better picture on what actually happened from a spotter's perspective. Bangalore Aviation : British plane spotters arrested in Delhi for indulging in an aviation friendly activity FYI, beside radio scanner, they used AirNav Radarbox which in some country is illegal to operate. Thanks for the link, KianHong. Just out of curiosity. Why didnt the MH pilots realise that the left engine had failed? Shdn't the instruments have told them? What if they had not been notified and then set the left engine to TOGA? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Pieter C. 5 Report post Posted February 22, 2010 Excellent article about what aircraft-spotting is all about... IMHO it's the AirRadarBox that made them suspicious to the Indian autorities, not the request for a runway-view room... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
KC Sim 2 Report post Posted February 22, 2010 All that "hi-tech" equipment must have made the hotel staff nervous ... can you imagine a chambermaid seeing all that gadgets and the aeronautical chatter that it brings ... along with binoculars, cameras etc. India's nervousness about spotting and photography is well known, and the two British spotters could have been more prudent about their hobby. If you are already staying in a runway-facing room at the airport (embedded there with little likelihood of scooting anywhere else or missing anything that comes along), do you really need all that equipment. They would have been fine with just binos and cameras. And if you really need all that stuff, could you not hang the "Do Not Disturb" sign outside your door and live through that few days without the room being cleaned? When I have my laptop, external hard-disk and various chargers set up in the hotel room, I generally hang the "Do Not Disturb" sign outside for the whole duration of my stay. Even as the the DGCA has recently recognised aviation spotting as a hobby (with a spotting group formed in Bangalore), information about this takes a long time filtering through the system in India and one is unlikely to find a dance troupe welcoming you to spotting at any Indian airport soon. So for those thinking of spotting in India, the operative words are "be discreet, be realistic, be cautious, be observant, be mindful". I too have always longed for a spotting trip to India ... but after hearing of TK's experience in Mumbai, I am not sure I am heading there in this lifetime. Japan, China, Netherlands, France, Ecuador - all these still hold tonnes of possibilities and bring less headaches. Hope this incident does not bring unwanted attention to spotting ... KC Sim Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tony 1 Report post Posted February 22, 2010 Sad to see yet another over-reaction citing concerns for aviation security, which is completely rubbish. But do agree with KC - "be discreet, be realistic, be cautious, be observant, be mindful". Not just in India, but everywhere we go spotting. We don't need, and definitely don't want, big signs with massive arrows pointing at us, shouting "Spotters here!". Happy Spotting! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Gerard.Dass 0 Report post Posted February 23, 2010 Dangerous hobby: planespotting pair face three years' jail February 23, 2010 - 10:45AM Two British planespotters detained in New Delhi last week have been charged with illegally intercepting communications between pilots and airport authorities, police say. Stephen Hampston, 46, and Steven Martin, 55, were held last Monday at a hotel near the international airport after staff raised concerns about their suspicious behaviour. "This planespotting that they were doing is illegal in India. They should have applied for permission before doing this. They have been charged for violating the rules," Delhi police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said yesterday. The two are set to be bailed but if convicted they face up to three years in prison, the spokesman said. Another police official said the two had been booked for intercepting "communications between the pilots and the Delhi air traffic control." He added that investigations had shown the two had no link to any terror group. The case echoes another in Greece in 2000 in which local authorities jailed a group of 12 British planespotters after they were arrested at an air force day function. They were found guilty of espionage charges but their sentences were suspended pending appeals. Indian media reports last week said police had found powerful binoculars, equipment that could trace far-off aircraft, including military planes and a map of the Delhi airport with the two. India has been on high alert since a restaurant bombing in the western city of Pune on February 13 killed at least a dozen people. It has also been on the defensive since revelations that David Coleman Headley, a US citizen and suspect in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, visited India numerous times as a tourist Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
KK Lee 5 Report post Posted March 7, 2010 British planespotters held in India get permission to leave countryJeremy Page, Delhi Two British planespotters arrested in India last month have been fined 25,000 rupees (£350) and allowed to leave the country after pleading guilty to intercepting radio traffic at Delhi’s international airport. An Indian court found Stephen Hampton, 46, and Steve Martin Ayres, 55, guilty of violating India’s colonial era Telegraph Act, according to their lawyer, Rajeev Awasthi. They avoided the more serious charge of espionage, which carries a ten-year prison sentence, and Mr Awasthi said the court was lenient as the two men were not aware of local laws. “They can go back to Britain, a few formalities are left. Their bail condition was overruled, they are free," he said, adding that some of their equipment had been confiscated. The two men — both railway workers from Bristol — admitted to carrying binoculars, equipment that could trace far-off aircraft, including military aircraft, and a map of the Delhi airport. They were detained on Feburary 15 after they checked into the Radisson Hotel near Delhi airport and requested a room overlooking the runway. Staff at the hotel informed local police that they were behaving suspiciously. Their arrest came as India was on high alert after a bombing that killed at least a dozen people in the western city of Poona two days earlier. That was the first such attack since the one on Mumbai in November 2008. India has also been on the defensive since revelations that David Coleman Headley, a US citizen of Pakistani origin who is a suspect in the Mumbai attacks, visited India numerous times as a tourist. This was not the first time that British plane-spotters have got into trouble with the law overseas: 12 others were convicted for espionage in Greece in 2000 after monitoring planes at an Air Force Day function. They were charged with espionage and faced 20-year prison terms but after six weeks the charges were reduced and they were released pending appeal. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article7051316.ece Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
