Is planespotting a security threat?

They had everything planned for their trip to Greece. The 12 Britons and two Dutch tourists had booked their trip to Greece through Touchdown Tours, a travel office in Midlenhall in eastern England. But the group was not planning to visit the country for sightseeing or hiking. The travel office through which they booked their trip specializes in trips to air shows and air force facilities around Europe, and the group was embarking on a planespotting trip. On November 8, all 14 of them were rounded up in Kalamata, 238 kilometers (149 miles) southwest of the capital, after attending a public event to mark a Greek air force holiday at a nearby military airfield. All of them, including tour leader and Touchdown Tours owner Paul Coppin, would spend the next five weeks behind bars before being formally charged with espionage, stirring strong criticism from the British media and officials in London. «This is a serious issue and is doing very great damage to Greece in the eyes of the West,» Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Denis MacShane remarked with some frustration days before the 14 planespotters were released on December 14, after each posted bail of $12,800. Campaigns for release The media in Britain launched their own campaign, branding Greeks as ignorant about the existence of planespotting as a hobby, ridiculing Greek authorities and the country’s legal system for arresting and jailing the 14 plane buffs. Some British newspapers even started fund-raising campaigns to aid the group, while others launched online petition sites to free the spotters. Calls for their immediate release came from all levels of the British government, urging the Greek government to intervene, as if the group had been abducted by a group of bandits in southern Afghanistan and the government was supposed to negotiate with the local warlord for their release. The government in Athens rejected the calls, arguing that the country’s competent and independent judicial authorities were handling the case. «I would like to officially reassure them, having spoken to (Justice Minister Philippos) Petsalnikos, that the conditions they are being held in are appropriate,» Foreign Minister George Papandreou said in a statement two weeks after their arrest, responding to letters of concern by European MPs. «I would also like to say that we know this hobby of planespotting is particularly popular in their countries and that the federations of this hobby have hundreds of thousands of members. I am sure that that this will be taken into consideration by Greek justice, but Greek justice is also enforcing the laws of the Greek State to the letter and our respect for its independence is absolute.» The issue reached the highest levels of government in London and Athens, climaxing with a meeting between Prime Minister Costas Simitis and his British counterpart, Tony Blair. But for the Greek authorities, the case went beyond the innocent curiosity of a few hobbyists. Greek government officials noted that the group had been warned three times about taking photographs at military bases prior to their apprehension, and that during their arrest military investigators found the group to be in possession of photographs of two military bases – at Tanagra near Athens, and the NATO base at Araxos in southern Greece. Moreover, they were also found with notes of tail numbers of aircraft stationed at the high-security Megara military base, about 30 kilometers (18 miles) west of Athens. Finally, air force officials had been investigating reports that the group was also using radio equipment to tap into the military frequency used in the communication between the air traffic control tower and military aircraft. Greek counterintelligence officers also have been investigating links between the group and the Turkish secret service after it emerged that Coppin had spent a week in Turkey earlier last year as a guest of the country’s armed forces. All 14 are expected back in Greece next month to stand trial. According to their lawyer, they are to appear in court on April 24 on misdemeanor charges. Hobby vs security Defenders of planespotting argue that the group may have been foolish but that they are innocent. «They may have been foolish but committed no crime recognized in the European Union,» MacShane declared while the group was still in prison. But the incident raises a much broader and rather serious debate, over what exactly planespotting is today and how it fits into a world driven by post-September 11 security anxieties. What once was considered a harmless hobby, with aircraft buffs running around airports taking photos of planes for their personal photo collection, has now evolved into a global-scale movement that utilizes cutting-edge technology and the Internet to disseminate the collected information worldwide. Their activities have also grown to include maintaining numerous websites with tail number records, base locations, the number and type of aircraft stationed there, and even recordings from military frequencies and assistance to others to break radio codes. Sometimes there is even an overlap with other hobbies, such as radio hamming. And all this is accessible by anyone via the Internet. All of a sudden, the curious and innocent planespotter has turned into an informer of military activity, maintaining vast records of all types of military aircraft, down to their specific models and tail numbers, location and recent movements, and with an audience that can range from a 6-year-old with access to a computer all the way to a foe wanting to have last-minute information on a country’s armed forces. War games If one accepts that this is a harmless hobby, then how can we explain the interest of those people in making public all the information they have been gathering? Especially since a large portion of it has been obtained by snooping around restricted areas of high-security military bases. «You don’t get the importance of numbers? Think, any potential enemy wants to know how many warplanes you’ve got; what type (down to the specific model, because there can be huge differences in what ordnance they can carry and how accurately they can deliver them); their current state of readiness and maintenance; and, of course, where exactly they are based,» one planespotter from Britain wrote in his website, questioning the interest by some fellow planespotters in jotting down tail numbers and listening to aircraft communications. And this could not be more true than in the case of Greece, which unlike Italy, Britain, Germany and other European countries, maintains a strong defense posture in order to deter any possible threat by its archrival Turkey. Other incidents Photographing military bases in Greece is prohibited – as is the case with military installations around the world – and warning signs are posted near the grounds of each facility. Even journalists and television crews have been arrested on several occasions for photographing various military bases without prior approval, and their films have been confiscated. The most recent incident occurred at Souda Bay, Crete, last year when a crew from a local TV station was shooting footage of the US naval base in the area for the day’s newscast. Authorities arrested them on the spot, and the crew spent many hours in police custody before being released. Their tape was also confiscated. One month before the 14 plane buffs were arrested in Kalamata, four Israeli tourists had been picked up by security police officers on Crete, after videotaping military activities near the same US naval base on Crete. Their films were also confiscated and they were released only after appearing before a local judge in a court of first instance where they explained their actions. The message they are sending is clear: Military bases are not theme parks where people can run around freely and take photos of whatever they please. If one is willing to ignore this message, then he must also be ready to face the consequences.