BIG POLICE HUNT ON

Chronicle (Levin), 4 June 1949, Page 4

BIG POLICE HUNT ON

Press Associatlon3

w w/ ! Ghcst Voice On Airways Radio Still Undetected

j (Per

WELLINGTON, June 3/ • . The police, aviation ahd hSdio foi'Ces 1 have combined ih a bigseale operation to tr&ch down the source Of the j|host Voice on airways radio frequency which has disfupted air traffic With Paraparaumu, Mbanwhile aircraft scheduled to land at the airport will not leave other points without a weather guaranteb that they ean approach Paraparaumu without any form of radio aid. They thuSt fly Uhdgr Strict visual flying rules and disregard any landing information picked up on their radids, and pihpoiiit aerodromes. The radio interloper has been transtiiittihg messages with bewilderihg success. He has made broadeasts purported to come from the cohtrol tOWers at Paraparaumu, Ohakea aiid Rongotai. Tn other fraudulent messages be • claims to be pilotS ealling groiind , stations. "When first heard the ghost voice simnlated landing instruetions to incoming aireraft ih plaiisibife toiies. ^ The first counter measure-. it is understood, was the introdnction of a pilot-groitnd code, but the ghost voice solved the code a.nd used it. Post and Telegraph Departmeiit radio insnectors baeked "P bv rlirection-finding gear tnned in, but tests failed to position the mystery station. It is snspected that the pernetrator is someone with a working knowledge of radio transmift.ers, aviation procedlire and control tower .iarffon— all' these oualifeies heing adeouately diseerned. The radio defeetion net failed to close completely today and the police threw their resoure/es. ineiiiding radio^eqtiipped oars, into the broadcast SCOpe of the ihveStigatioiis. ConjectUfe over the impersonator. varies, but credence is given to the theory that he is opsrating with sUrplus War eqUipmenL • It __ is thought he is at least a former Air Force member or civil aviator ■ employee mentally deranged. On a Ministerial reqiiest at the suggestion of the CummiSsio.lier of police publication of the eircumstanees was Withheld oh Thursday, The reason given was "that publication at that stage might prejhdice the opporttinity to ttack . down the euiprit. A Sydney newspaper, hoWevCr, earried the stor'y this morning ahd ih the affternoon the Mihister of Civil Aviation (Mr. Jones) released confirming statements. The Minister explained that there had been aii "Unauthorised transmisBion," and exptessed the hope that the person concerned would "immediately realise his foolish action and cease further transmissions." A suggestion that unauthorised signals to aircraft might have been seht out - by a member or members of the Air Training Corps in course of praetiee trahsmissions was given an emphatie denial by officers of the Air Eorce to whom it was teferred. It Was stated that all training and equipment used by the corps*was un.der rigid supervision and that the retention of transmission apparatus hy cadets was definitely not allowed. A senior officer of the Air Force explained that radio transmission sets used by cadets of the Air Training Corps for training purposes' were operated on a frequency fixed by the communications braneh of the Air Force. These frequencies could not be altered, they could hot be interfered with, nor could they interfere with anyone else. The suggestion that members of the corps wete alloWed to take tlw transmission sets home with them was, wholly incorrect, / saicl the officer. ' ' ' Certainly no one with the slightest 'kfibwledge of Air Force procedure would ever dream of" making such a stupid suggestion," he added. Another officer stated that a group of Air Training Corps cadets was in the Paraparaumu district last weekend doing. -field exercises with army radio sets. The'army was in control of these pxereises. Transmission by the corps were on different. frequencies from the civilian ones and these .sets w»vp never issued to individual cadets. "81