Two British plane-spotters — Stephen Hampston, 46, and Steven Martin, 55, — were held last Monday at a hotel near the New Delhi international airport after staff raised concerns about their suspicious behaviour. They have been charged with illegally intercepting communications between pilots and airport authorities.”This planespotting that they were doing is illegal in India. They should have applied for permission before doing this,” Delhi police said.
Below, Bhairav Acharya, a Bangalore-based plane-spotter, on his hobby. From The Indian Express:
A few decades ago, when airlines and pilots and stewardesses epitomised glamour, plane-spotting was an understandable hobby. Each country’s national airline did more than ferry people overseas; they represented that country abroad. In the late ’80s, for instance, when Ethiopia was in the midst of famine and conflict, their national airline was remarkably successful. In major airports around the world, Ethiopian Airlines aircraft jostled for space with the big European and American carriers. I remember a group of Ethiopian women break into proud applause in a waiting room in Dubai when their airline touched down in front of them.
I often used to travel to Tanzania, and from the windows of African airports I watched planes from little known cities land and depart, each one a colourful embodiment of their countries. I was fairly young when I learned to identify aircraft. There is something unforgettable about sitting in the rear of a Boeing 727, with the third engine screeching overhead, as the pilot makes the last broad turn over the Red Sea before landing in Aden. Or the steady whine of the Boeing 757’s two engines barely 30 feet above the water, where Entebbe airport’s runway juts out like a promontory into Lake Victoria. More:
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