The Melbourne Airport (Source: melbourneairport.com.au)
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Phil Brennan, who writes:
Your readers might be interested in this article from today’s Guardian:
Hoax radio transmission at Melbourne airport forces plane to abort landing
Police are investigating 15 incidents of illegal radio transmissions with aircraft at Melbourne and Avalon airports, including hoax calls that forced at least one aircraft to abort its landing.
In a statement issued on Monday night, the Australian federal police said there had been “unlawful interference with air traffic control broadcasts over several weeks”.
Audio obtained by the ABC revealed that, during one of the calls, the hoax caller pretended to be the pilot of a light aircraft as he spoke to an air traffic controller.
“I can see you there now. Roger your mayday. Could you please advise what your situation is,” the air traffic control operator asks.
“Engine failure,” the hoax caller replies. “Descending passing through 4,500.”
In another incident a Virgin Australia flight en route from the Gold Coast to Melbourne was forced to change course under the instruction of the hoax caller transmitting from an unknown location, the ABC reported.
Such behaviour could have disastrous consequences.
You’re right, Phil. It angers me to no end when people intentionally cause interference or disrupt operations at airports. So many lives depend on air traffic control and flight communications systems.
Thank you for sharing.
Illegal and unauthorized radio transmissions on the civil aeronautical band are an ongoing problem and incidents like this do occur more frequently than people realize. The agency responsible for spectrum management in Australia (ACMA) takes these and similar incidents very seriously.
Part of the problem is that airband transceivers for the VHF COM band are widely available for anyone to purchase online without a license. The HF aeronautical bands have similar problems with unauthorized use of allocated frequencies by fisherman, pirates and others who should know better.