[Scan-DC] South Africa: Plane spotter 'used illegal radio'

[Alan Henney]

The Mercury (South Africa)

January 13, 2011 Thursday 
E1 Edition

Plane spotter 'used illegal radio'

BYLINE: AURELIA CHAPMAN

SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 4

LENGTH: 287 words

THEY were looking for World Cup terrorists, but instead they caught a plane spotter.

The trial of Boksburg plane spotter Julian Swift continued yesterday as Matlhakanye Lekganyane, an inspector with communications regulator Icasa, continued with his evidence in chief about Swift's 11 counts of using an illegal radio apparatus. 

Swift was arrested in February last year when police saw him taking pictures of aircraft and listening to radio communications at OR Tambo airport.

The arresting officer, Constable Pieter Diedericks, testified earlier that police had been told to be aware of possible terrorist threats before the World Cup and he became suspicious when he heard communications between pilots and the control tower at OR Tambo from Swift's radio.

Diedericks warned Swift that he was in a high-risk hijacking zone.

Swift is facing six counts of intercepting electronic communications and 11 counts of using an illegal, non-approved radio apparatus.

Lakganyane said each of the 11 counts represented a frequency that Swift was listening to and that he required a licence for each of those frequencies.

"You are not allowed to use a radio frequency without a licence," he said.

He said that Swift had been "tuned in" to frequencies dedicated to aeronautical services - for which they had paid - and had contravened the Electronic Communications Act.

He said Swift's radio scanning device was illegal because of its "continuous tuning capabilities", which allowed him to scan across the spectrum of frequencies in South Africa.

Swift, 52, is unemployed and describes himself as a "hobbyist". He said outside court that he bought the "low-powered radio receiver with no more fanfare than I would go buy a packet of cigarettes".