Two Britons arrested in Delhi hotel for ‘plane-spotting activities’
Mail Foreign Service
16th February 2010
Two Britons have been arrested in the Indian capital for ‘suspicious plane-spotting activities’.
Steven Martin, 56, and Stephen Hampston, in his mid-40s, were arrested at the Radisson Hotel in Delhi on Monday evening.
Police sources said the pair were carrying sophisticated equipment, including high-powered binoculars, cameras and a gadget used to monitor air traffic and capture details of any plane in the air at any time.
Google maps of Indira Gandhi International Airport, which is near the hotel, were also found on a laptop being used by one of the men.
The pair are denying the charges and claim they were simply in the capital on a plane-spotting trip.
Similar to train spotting, the hobby of observing and logging aircraft registration numbers is practised by thousands of people across the world.
A police source said: ‘It is not clear if the equipment had been used to gather information about aircraft parked at the airport and movement of flights, but this remains a possibility.’
The men checked into the five-star hotel on Saturday and were given a room on the fourth floor overlooking the airport.
They were due to leave today, but staff became suspicious after they did not emerge from their room for 24 hours.
Police were called and security agencies arrested the pair in their room.
Rajan Bhagat, a Delhi Police spokesman, said: ‘We are questioning them, but we have not revealed any of their details as nothing adverse has been found yet.’
It is not clear whey the travelled from or what their plans were after they left the hotel, which is popular with travellers due to it being just two miles from the airport.
Indian intelligence agencies are on high alert after the deadly bomb blast in Pune, near Mumbai, on Saturday night.
Nine people were killed when a bomb was detonated in the popular German Bakery.
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They had pocket radars activated while sitting in the lobby…. 😎
By: Newforest - 8th March 2010 at 14:26
Fined, no jail.
Plane-Spotters Avoid Jail Time in India
Two British men who were found with a scanner, laptop, binoculars and cameras, and who admitted to “illegally monitoring aircraft” near Indira Gandhi International Airport, India, have been fined by an Indian court, but were released Friday without jail time. Stephen Hampton, 46, and Steven Ayres, 56, had faced up to 10 years under spying charges, but pled to a lesser offense that could have led to three years in jail. The two were arrested in India, Feb. 15, two days after a bomb blast in the Indian city of Pune initiated a security crackdown in the country. In the UK, authorities have approached plane-spotters differently. In 2004, a UK plan sought to recruit them to report suspicious potentially terrorist-related activities near airports. That program does not exist in India. There the men were arrested for recording the conversation between pilots and air traffic control, which (as performed) was against sections of India’s Telegraph Act. The men pled guilty to a breach under the act.
Hampton and Ayres originally drew suspicion when, prior to their arrival, they requested a Radisson Hotel room overlooking an airport runway. Upon their arrival, their equipment was apparently enough to spark security’s concern. Ultimately, the courts fined the men roughly $550 and left them free to return to the UK after stop notices were removed from their passports. Reports said that the equipment the men used could acquire information from the aircraft that identified each aircraft’s make, tail number, and the airline that operated it. They could then use that information to track the aircraft around the world, according to a spokesman for the men. Hampton’s mother told reporters her son travels the world to take pictures of aircraft, as a hobby.
By: Bograt - 23rd February 2010 at 19:20
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.
Source: AFP
Just to give the full details of that particular story, the ‘Kalamata 14’ as they were known at the time, later (all bar one) returned for their trial and the case was dismissed. Also it occurred in 2001.
By: zoot horn rollo - 23rd February 2010 at 16:40
latest news
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bristol/8530062.stm and
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/23/british-plane-spotters-face-jail-india
By: zoot horn rollo - 23rd February 2010 at 07:58
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.
Source: AFP
Not forgetting the fact that the group also included three Dutch spotters
By: steve rowell - 23rd February 2010 at 06:45
In fairness, you don’t expect men of that sort of age to go around plane spotting.
Had they been young lads, it would be a lot more understandable!
I’m an avid plane spotter and if the truth be known i’m probably old enough to be your grandfather ;):D
By: pauldyson1uk - 23rd February 2010 at 06:40
In fairness, you don’t expect men of that sort of age to go around plane spotting.
Had they been young lads, it would be a lot more understandable!
I disagree most of the spotters that I know are mid aged men.
By: KabirT - 23rd February 2010 at 04:55
Well the Government here is going a bit too far with booking the accused under the Telegraph act. :rolleyes:
By: steve rowell - 23rd February 2010 at 03:39
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.
Source: AFP
By: Grey Area - 20th February 2010 at 07:22
…..As they are middle aged men, they should know better than to do this without permission.
Even though they were hanging off the hotel window, it would still be suspicious behaviour…….
I agree 100%.
Common sense seems to be in short supply these days.
I’ve merged the two threads now, Kabir. 🙂
By: KabirT - 20th February 2010 at 04:52
Thread already exists…
http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?t=98029
as for the decision of them getting into a little bit of trouble, it was not a wise thing to do in the first place specially when the city was on high alert after the Pune blasts which occurred just 46 hours before this incident.
By: old shape - 20th February 2010 at 00:13
Indian airports are nearly all, if not all, military bases.
As they are middle aged men, they should know better than to do this without permission.
Even though they were hanging off the hotel window, it would still be suspicious behaviour……binocs/cameras on an airport in a nation where the only plane spotter is on this forum.
By: Grey Area - 19th February 2010 at 23:16
In fairness, you don’t expect men of that sort of age to go around plane spotting.
Had they been young lads, it would be a lot more understandable!
In my experience, the majority of “travelling” plane spotters are middle-aged men with a fair amount of disposable income.
By: PMN - 19th February 2010 at 22:01
planespotters from Bristol
Spalding… I’ve told you about this before!
By: Gooney Bird - 19th February 2010 at 21:48
In fairness, you don’t expect men of that sort of age to go around plane spotting.
Had they been young lads, it would be a lot more understandable!
By: lucas - 19th February 2010 at 21:12
To Commit the Crime of Planespotting!
In the world we live in today, it seems like nearly anything can end you up in jail- even the innocence of planespotting.
This was the case in India where two planespotters from Bristol were detained:
By: Skymonster - 17th February 2010 at 20:04
haha…. who do you fly for Andy?
Nah, I don’t fly for a job (although I do have a share in a light aircraft)… I just work for a very large computer software company that has most of its development in Hyderabad and Bangalore, which I have to visit from time-to-time.
Andy
By: J Boyle - 17th February 2010 at 19:19
Perhaps the hotel staff was expecting something else?…:rolleyes:
By: KabirT - 17th February 2010 at 17:40
haha…. who do you fly for Andy?
By: Skymonster - 17th February 2010 at 17:33
Hyderabad belly actually… :rolleyes: In fact, I’m surprised that the hotel staff were suspicious of the spotters – seems to me like each time I go to India either myself of one of my colleagues is laid low and confined to a hotel room for a while! 😡
Andy
By: KabirT - 17th February 2010 at 16:24
Delhi belly? 😀
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February 17, 2010 at 4:37 am