12

According to Is it illegal for Joe Public to listen to ATC in the UK? over on Aviation.SE, although aviation transmissions are broadcast publicly, in the clear, unencrypted; it is illegal to listen to them live on a scanner or such.

What law prohibits this? I believe it dates to WWII fears of spies. I also believe the UK is the only country with such a law. You can freely listen to New York's JFK or Amsterdam Schiphol's ATC without a problem.

Has anybody been successfully prosecuted under this law?

Improve this question
1
  • The same law would seem to apply to receiving ADS-B (aircraft position transponder) data. Sites like Flightradar24 do this, and publish the information, quite openly. flightradar24.com/how-it-works
    – Paul Johnson
    Mar 11, 2019 at 15:06

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
13

The Radiocommunications Agency (now OFCOM) issued some guidance about this in 2001.

The specific offence is defined by s5 Wireless Telegraphy Act 1949:

Any person who ... uses any wireless telegraphy apparatus with intent to obtain information as to the contents, sender or addressee of any message (whether sent by means of wireless telegraphy or not) of which neither the person using the apparatus nor a person on whose behalf he is acting is an intended recipient ... shall be guilty of an offence under this Act.

It's also an offence under s5(1)(b)(ii) to disclose the contents of any such message, so the reception and disclosure of radio messages not sent by or addressed to you are both offences.

I don't know if there have been any successful prosecutions specifically for monitoring aircraft communications. I doubt whether a hobbyist listening for his own enjoyment would attract the attention of the authorities, but if he started to publish recordings of the traffic then that might well do it.

Improve this answer
5
  • It is my understanding from a different issue (heavy 'REIN' coming from one business, affecting another business, causing extreme internet problems) that OFCOM is the regulator, but they have "no business interest" in enforcing regulations like this (according to BT).
    – Danny Beckett
    May 27, 2015 at 18:18
  • 1
    If there was sufficient public interest, there'd be nothing stopping the CPS from instructing the police to charge this offence -- no reason to involve OFCOM at all.
    – Flup
    Jun 12, 2015 at 14:30
  • 1
    Random side note: there's an unofficial edge-case for pager traffic (POCSAG) in the UK whereby it is generally considered acceptable to capture and read it, because a pager has to do that in order to know if a message is intended for it, but it isn't acceptable to distribute or act upon information contained within a pager message not intended for you. Many EMS systems still use POCSAG as a backup for dispatch, however, and I believe there is separate legislation around intercepting that.
    – Polynomial
    Feb 19, 2017 at 19:57
  • If you find the plane spotters near an airport you will often see they are listening in on airband radios. Nobody seems to care about it.
    – Paul Johnson
    Mar 11, 2019 at 15:04
  • @PaulJohnson arguably they (people with a legitimate interest in air traffic at an airport) are the intended recipients!
    – JeffUK
    Mar 14, 2019 at 21:03
-1

What about other planes listening to the broadcast which isn't meant for them!

Don't think the OFCOM clause mentioned applies on public transmission channels. A receiver of this transmission cause no disruption and anyone can easily build a device capable of listening to transmission.

It is, however, restricted but not because of this OFGEM clause.

Improve this answer
-1

Listening to airband in the UK is technically illegal, unless you are a licensed VHF radio operator (ie, Pilot /ATC officer / AFISO etc. However, the popularity and abundance of listeners, in reality means that in the UK, there is an unofficial ish dispensation meaning you will not get prosecuted for listening in, unless you are doing so for illicit purposes. Transmitting on airband frequencies, however, will cause you sertious problems!! Listening is a bit like standing still on a pavement! Technically illegal, (Obstructing the public right of way) but not really prosecutable, unless you are told to move along, by a constable.

Improve this answer
1
  • 1
    Could you please cite the actual law or regulation which makes this illegal? If there are news stories or other sources about how common such listening is, or stories or cases about people being prosecuted for broadcasting on those frequencies, citations of those would also help ,the answer.
    – David Siegel
    Mar 5, 2021 at 22:36

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .