radio ham saves US plane
 

BBC News - County Tyrone radio ham saves US plane after contact lost
Tyrone News, Tyrone Sport, your local newspaper - Benny prevents airline disaster – The Ulster Herald

So the questions - will the CAA (or is that FAA?) prosecute for unauthorised broadcast on airband? The article doesn't say where this happened but presumably it was it state side (which would maybe make more sense as there weren't high winds in Castlederg!).
Would you trust a Ham operator in his shed?
Were there no other planes around that would have been better relays?
Why wasn't the aircraft transmitting on guard (and so why did no one else hear their call).
Did this plane not have satellite phone as a backup?
Why has this only been picked up by Northern Irish press (as far as I can google)?

Dublin to Boston

There speaks someone who has not the faintest idea of what is required to become a licenced Amateur Radio Operator in the UK (and elsewhere.) :* Under normal circumstances OFCOM could revoke his licence for communicating by radio with the crew of an aircraft but as the circumstances are rather different they may take a different view.
From personal experience, most likely because it was blocked by a bunch of unprofessional idiots too cowardly to identify themselves, screeching "You're on guard" every time that frequency was tried. :mad:
In a difficult situation I was eventually helped by a member of the crew of an Emirates Airbus who were at 37,000' over continental Europe and I remain forever grateful to that person.

Well said DX. The other day I was asked by ATC to call another aircraft on 121.5. I said "XYZ 123 this ABC 456 on 121.5"....and before any answer could come backsome prat was yelling at me 'On Guard!!!!"

what is it with these people??

It's long, long ago but I seem to recall that my New Zealand Amateur Radio Licence permitted me to use any frequency in time of emergency but my UK Licence certainly does not give the same authority.

Maybe it is because United doesn't normally fly Dublin to Boston?

Or, perhaps it was a reroute for the storm?

Here's another article with a 'log sheet' in one of the pictures:

Derg man 'saves US flight' from Sandy - UTV Live News

Looks like one of the notations on the log sheet is 'AA 720 - mayday- Boston INT'. Not sure this makes sense, isn't AA 720 DFW-LGA?

Or, was it yet another reroute for weather and they came up on the HF in the B-737-800 to chat with Benny in the UK? :confused:

LGA was underwater that day, a reroute to JFK would make sense but through someone in Northern Ireland?

The story might be largely true and some of the facts were garbled in the reporting. I've done crossings in recent years with satcomm inop due to MEL or someone forgot to send the renewed FCC license to the right place.

After a careful review of the evidence, I hereby nominate Benny Young for this year's ALPA Tim Martins Lifesaving Award. :ok:

From the context, it sounds like this exchange happened on HF. It's not uncommon that a distant station will get better reception than a close station. It's also not clear how he contacted the airport. Possibly by telephone. I'm guessing VHF wasn't working too well over the Atlantic.

It's also not uncommon for hams to come together in an emergency, and again, sometimes the better contact is not nearby.

Further information on HF frequencies:
Panama-Pacific Net, covers the Carribean, 8143 KHz, used by sailors and land stations to communicate status, etc.

New York ARINC: 8906 KHz, 8825 KHz (North Atlantic), 8846 KHz, 8918 KHz (Carribean), 8933 KHz.

If you have a general coverage receiver you can easily move between those frequencies, as they are on the same band. Non-channelized Aircraft radios can move to the marine frequencies if necessary.

Radio transmissions in the USA are supposed to be governed by the FCC. Point, as the OP posted the operator "saved the plane". Question, did the operator hold a FCC liscence? They are easy to obtain. 20 years ago it was a common requirement for an A&P though antiquated as are the laws in the EU, now to my understanding I operate on HF,VHF etc under the airlines operating cert.

Why kill the messenger?

Now abuse of this authority can be followed up on

Not sure this chap is too concerned about any regulations, whether on amateur bands or anywhere else.
He holds a foundation licence, allowing just 10watts, yet there is a 1.2kw Yaesu amplifier glowing away in the background.

Silly man; now OFCOM has another reason for relieving him of his equipment - unless he shares the shack with a suitably qualified person who owns any offending items present. I have just three radios, a Yaesu 857 and FT60E and an ICOM as a back up for when I'm flying. All of them, with their antennae, fall within the restrictions of my licences (OFCOM and CAA). It simply isn't worth losing your equipment just because you want to use higher power - do it the sensible way - get your Intermediate and, if you wish, Advanced Licences.

YouTube


The German Coast Guard is also ready to help

The International Radio Regulations (which are a Treaty in international law) lay down that

>4.9 No provision of these Regulations prevents the use by a station in distress, or by a station providing assistance to it, of any means of radiocommunication at its disposal to attract attention, make known the condition and location of the station in distress, and obtain or provide assistance.<

A large amount of RR32 concerns distress traffic in the maritime bands, and by implication, some of it applies to aeronautical frequencies.

There is no distinct provision that a station of any service receiving a distress call HAS to act upon it, but the implication is that under the circumstances of a distress call being received and no station in the appropriate service responding, then there is an obligation to act. And, if need be, to use more power and different frequencies to those permitted in the licence.


So it is definite that the action was legal in terms of the radio regulations..

grounded 27. Being in Northern Ireland, it's nothing to do with the FCC. Nor even CAA, being purely an UK Ofcom matter. (There's a Swiss Ofcom, too, to complicate matters!)

A similar situation happened during the East Coast floods of 1953 when GKZ, Humber Radio was flooded out, and G3ELZ answered Mayday calls from ships, passing messages on to the lifeboats and the coastguard.

Thank you Radeng. :ok:

My mistake, should have read the article a little better, I saw FAA/Boston/Sandy and made the wrong assumption.

Irrelevancy
 

Dx Wombat,

You should be relieved of your own equipment this man has talent and the expertise to save a plane without comm.In the sky without comm real decisions must be made -quoting OFFCOM regulations won't save ur ass in a moment of peril good men are brave and in a moment of peril act to save each other with courage and selflessness.This man saved lives and put himself on the line this is to be commended let us salute this brave hero

jimclearsky..... any chance of that in English please?

Checking a little more, the AA 720 on the pictured log sheet was cancelled on October 29 (and 30 and 31) so it seems odd that it is listed with a 'mayday' notation.

I've never flown a B-738 but I would guess that most of them in domestic service don't have HF's installed.

Similarly, United's flights from Dublin to Newark and Dulles were cancelled on October 29 so it wasn't one of those that diverted to Boston. And, United doesn't fly DUB-BOS as far as I can tell. There is a UA 319 scribbled on the log sheet, it operates a BOS-DEN leg, did Denver get confused with Dublin in the reporting perhaps?

But UA 319 wouldn't be audible on VHF in the UK and again probably wouldn't use HF even as a backup on that route. Was Benny listening to internet scanner feeds over liveatc.net and passing info to ham emergency HF nets that were indeed operating on the U.S. East Coast that evening?

Anyway, UA 319 also didn't operate on October 29 as far as I can tell.

Somehow, this story as presented just doesn't add up. I feel that it is either a very misstated report of what actually happened or total BS that might fool an Irish reporter but not most of us here.

I got bored one weekend a while back and bought a couple of books by Gordon West WB6NOA with the questions and answers for the U.S. amateur radio Extra Class license test. I missed one question but otherwise easily passed as I recall. Seems like I had to take two or three written tests in succession, it's been a few years, I'm not sure. Reminded me of those 'FE Writtens' that the U.S. airlines used to list as a hiring requirement. Morse code was suddenly not required on the ham license after some rule change. After getting the Extra Class license and listening to the folks whining about the proverbial 'aches and pains' on 40 meters I kinda decided it wasn't for me.

jim, I know what you mean. But then, I talk like that all the time.;)


In the early 60s, the Air Navigation Order was already a sizable series of documents. I bashed through them, and the very end found to my delight the words - well, more or less - saying:

'The captain of an aircraft may take any action he deems suitable for the purpose of saving life.'

At least in those days there was some common sense about. Let's hope there are a few good souls left who can see the value of initiative.

:ok: My first thought when I saw the thread title sodapop