[Scan-DC] Ottawa Airport Watch

[Alan Henney]

The Ottawa Sun

November 21, 2009 Saturday 
FINAL EDITION

Original eyes on the skies; 
Ottawa Airport Watch started 10 years ago as a collection of 'groupies' ... now they're a valuable layer of security

BYLINE: BY JON WILLING

SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 14

LENGTH: 848 words

A radio scanner attached to Nelson Plamondon's jacket crackles as he focuses his high-powered binoculars on a commercial plane landing at the Ottawa International Airport.

It's one of his favourites, the Dash 8.

"Really rugged," Plamondon says of the plane as it glides onto a runway a few hundred yards over a fence that separates the airfield from civilians.

Like most members of Ottawa Airport Watch, Plamondon knows his air machines. The 63-year-old former military police officer was in the air force and worked as a customs agent, often investigating incidents involving aircraft. 

"I've been around aircraft all my life and when I heard about the airport watch many years ago, I immediately got involved as a member," he says.

They are, as Plamondon describes, aircraft "groupies."

In 1999, Ottawa Airport Watch was one of a kind. Here was a group of aviation nuts, their eyes glued to the runways, and police didn't know they had an auxiliary unit right under their noses. An Ottawa Mountie working in a national security branch realized the potential.

ON ALERT

A decade later, airport watch chapters have popped up around the world. They all have their roots on a 6-km stretch of road behind the Ottawa airport.

Alert Rd. is one of the prime watching spots for the 40-member Ottawa Airport Watch volunteer organization. You know when members are there by the large magnetic signs on their cars. They wear matching windbreakers and red golf shirts. And if you're causing a problem, maybe you'll meet them face-to-face.

"It's a community service we perform, not unlike the neighbourhood watch. In this case, of course, the neighbourhood is the airport," Plamondon says.

Plamondon, chairman of the local chapter for about three years, puts in about 1,200 hours a year watching the airfield. The front of his SUV is set up like a mini-cockpit. He carries a power supply for his laptop, which he uses to track arrivals, departures and aircraft registrations. Two scanners help him monitor the chatter between pilots and the air traffic tower.

When he's not watching the planes, Plamandon is eyeing the airfield or the perimeter.

The group's motto: Observe, record, report.

"Having spent so much time out here, we very much know what's normal in the operation of this particular airport," Plamondon explains.

"Anything we see that is out of the ordinary or possibly something we see that may not be right about a particular aircraft when it's taxiing or landing, we immediately, in fact are obligated, to contact the security operations centre and report that information."

The group hasn't unmasked any bombshell security threats, but members have reported cut locks, opened gates and even a large woodpecker hole that could have toppled a transformer pole.

"Our eyes are always open," Plamondon says.

RCMP Cpl. Jacques Brunelle, who in 1999 was a plainclothes officer with the national security division at the airport, came up with the idea of starting an official watch program when he noticed more and more people parking along the airport fence to watch planes touch down. The dashboards were covered in newspapers and books. Brunelle would ride around the property in the morning, and these strangers would still be there later in the day.

Instead of shooing them from their perches, Brunelle harnessed their potential as another layer of airport security. The members were deputized, per se, as volunteer airport watchers, although they have no powers beyond those of a regular citizen.

"What draws these volunteers is their love for aviation, and it gives them a reason to justify their hobby of sitting out at the airport," Brunelle says.

Seeing how useful watchers were to law enforcement, Brunelle started expanding the organization to other Canadian airports.

In 2000, the watch became an RCMP "best practice" for airport policing.

Today, there are roughly 400 members of airport watch chapters across Canada and Brunelle, as the national co-ordinator, is trying to expand the program internationally. He's working with people in the U.S., United Kingdom and Australia.

HIS SECOND HOME

Members, who all require police background checks, take tremendous pride in their volunteer responsibilities.

For some, it is a great way to combine all their hobbies into one organization.

Retired military airframe technician John Davies, 62, has been a member of Ottawa Airport Watch for nine years. The outside perimeter of the Ottawa airport is somewhat of a second home for Davies, an avid photographer who has snapped thousands of pictures of planes.

"To me, it's something to do. It's relaxing. I come out here and read a book instead of staying at home and reading a book," Davies says. "I have my camera and I listen, and if there's an airplane I haven't seen before, I'll get out and take a picture of it."

Even with the airport abuzz in recent months with visits from the U.S. president and the Royals, Davies says the real star attractions are the hulking beasts carrying them to the nation's capital.

"I'm interested in taking pictures of the plane, not the people coming off of it."

JON.WILLING at SUNMEDIA.CA



LOAD-DATE: November 21, 2009



LANGUAGE: ENGLISH



GRAPHIC: photo by Errol McGihon, Sun Media Ottawa Airport Watch chairman Nelson Plamondon keeps close watch on a plane overhead. "Our eyes are always open," he says.



PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper