[Scan-DC] Information technology student channels air-traffic chatter

[Alan Henney]

Pittsburgh Tribune Review

April 9, 2009 Thursday

Information technology student channels air-traffic chatter

BYLINE: Bonnie Pfister

LENGTH: 621 words


When a small plane crashed outside of Buffalo on an icy February
night, it wasn't federal agencies that first shared the communications
between the radio tower and the doomed pilot. It was a free Web site
built by an information technology professional and aviation
enthusiast that features live feeds from more than 250 airports around
the world.

Dozens of news Web sites linked to the site that offered an early
audio snapshot into Continental Connection Flight 3407, a twin-engine
turboprop plane that crashed into a house 5 miles northeast of Buffalo
Niagara International Airport on Feb. 12, killing all 49 people aboard
and one person inside the house. Icing on the wings initially was
suspected, but federal aviation investigators now suggest pilot error
was the cause.

The transmissions between the tower and pilot were heard within an
hour and a half of the crash at www.LiveATC.net, a 6-year-old Web site
created by Philadelphia native Dave Pascoe who lives outside of
Boston. The site is powered by volunteers who set up police scanners
near airports, tuning into communications from airport towers. Those
hobbyists upload transmissions via home computers to Pascoe's Web
site, where users can listen to live feeds or recordings of notable
communications.

"I think of LiveATC as a collision of my profession and my hobbies,"
said Pascoe, 46, vice president of operations for www.ourstage.com, an
indie music Web site. A ham radio enthusiast since high school, he
earned his pilot's license in 2001.

Among volunteers linking feeds to the site is Erik Meyer, a
20-year-old information technology student at Community College of
Allegheny County. Stumbling across the Web site in June 2005 while
still at Northgate High School, he quickly volunteered, rigging a
10-foot antenna to his parents' hilltop home in Avalon.

Using three police-radio scanners, he tunes into live transmissions at
Pittsburgh International Airport in Findlay, uploading communications
between tower controllers and pilots on the ground and in the air. The
feeds are linked automatically round-the-clock through a computer just
off the family's living room.

"Aviation always interested me," Meyer said. His brother Gary, 22, a
senior at Embrey-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida, soon will
join the Air Force upon graduation. But Meyer, who works part time at
Giant Eagle, said he wants to study information technology at a
four-year college, in Pittsburgh or elsewhere.

"I looked into becoming pilot, or maybe an air traffic controller," he
said. "But now I think IT is best for me, will offer the most
opportunities."

Pascoe said he first hooked up a scanner to capture communications
from Boston's Logan International Airport in 2003. He uploaded the
communications to the Internet, curious to see whether anyone would be
interested. Hobbyists responded enthusiastically, and volunteers now
upload transmissions from Romania, South Africa, Kuwait, Brazil, Japan
and Australia.

LiveATC.net counts 2 million page views per month from 250,000 unique
visitors, he said. Listeners can tune in via computer or cell phone,
if they type in a Web address. A dedicated iPhone application should
be forthcoming in a few weeks, Pascoe said, with a BlackBerry version
to follow.

Among those who tune in, Pascoe said, are new pilots and air-traffic
control students -- including some abroad -- wanting to learn aviation
vernacular.

The National Air Traffic Control Association has no problem with
people listening to its members at work.

"To us, it's a great thing," said Doug Church, spokesman for the union
that represents 20,000 aviation workers. "It's a way to let the public
know what an amazing juggling act that is air traffic control."