County Tyrone radio ham saves US plane after contact lost

Capt'n Midnight

What use is amateur radio ?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-foyle-west-20337368

Benny Young was turning the dial on his radio when he picked up a Mayday call from a United Airlines flight from Dublin to Boston.
...
"I ended up talking to the pilot for about 17 minutes and I got the man operating the emergency net to come up to my frequency.

"He could hear me, but he couldn't hear the pilot because of a problem with the transponders on the ground which had been taken out by the storm.

"We were able to get the plane diverted because the winds were measured at 95 miles an hour at Boston."

PauloMN

Sweet, what a story to be able to tell to your mates in the pub. All of a sudden nerd turns into cool lol! :cool:

pixbyjohn

What frequency was used, does anyone know?

martinedwards

A WONDERFUL GOOD NEWS STORY ABOUT AMATEUR RADIO.

BUT

look at the pics. there is a dirty great linear which is switched ON. he has a licence that limits him to 10w output.

what band was he working on?

if he was talking to the pilot of a jet liner, he was clearly working WELL OUTSIDE the confines of his licence.

WONDERFUL if he genuinely helped and played a part in saving a bunch of lives.

PauloMN

martinedwards wrote: »

A WONDERFUL GOOD NEWS STORY ABOUT AMATEUR RADIO.

BUT

look at the pics. there is a dirty great linear which is switched ON. he has a licence that limits him to 10w output.

what band was he working on?

if he was talking to the pilot of a jet liner, he was clearly working WELL OUTSIDE the confines of his licence.

WONDERFUL if he genuinely helped and played a part in saving a bunch of lives.

I presume you are taking the piss....

watty

One wonders what Ireland's Aeronautical Shortwave station at Ballygireen near Shannon was doing at the time. Used for Shannon Volmet and Shanwick.

martinedwards

according to a bunch of forums there are a LOT of unanswered questions around this.

apart from him opersting well outside his licence (which in a life saving operation you ARE allowed to do, there seems to be no confirmation from anywhere other than this bloke's log book.

where are the US news stories?

the gushing passengers wanting to make some sort of genealogical connection to the old country....

and it was a flight from Dublin.....

why isn't the Irish Times/RTE/every flipping boy else shouting about it.

IMHO, either HE made it all up, or he is the victim of a wind up.

watty

I don't believe it. Ballygireen / Shanwick on HF would contact such plane easier. They have serious aerials for HF and well situated. Perhaps he heard them talking to the plane.

dxhound2005

The Irish Aviation Authority seem to be sceptical about it as well according to this UTV report.

http://www.u.tv/News/Derg-man-saves-US-flight-from-Sandy/aabfa496-a76c-42b3-84ce-d45488b90ed6

However, the Irish Aviation Authority told UTV it would have a record of any flight out of Dublin experiencing such problems, whether it happened in Irish or foreign airspace.

"I checked with our North Atlantic Communications station and they experienced absolutely no communications issues during the time of Hurricane Sandy," a spokesman said.


I would have thought an obvious thing for the journalists reporting this story to do would be to contact the authorities at Buffalo Airport where the plane is supposed to have landed to find out the circumstances.

martinedwards

You aren't seroiusly suggesting a journalist should check thier facts?

watty

So it's imaginary then. The IAA would definitely know as "Shanwick" (Prestwick & Shannon) are responsible for comms along side the North American (Labrador?) sites for all Transatlantic flights.

dxhound2005

This story adds an interesting angle. Could Benny have been hoaxed by someone pretending to be a pilot?

http://americaireland.com/sandy-airline-disaster-averted-by-tyrone-ham-enthusiast/

watty

Very likely he was had.

Gander. That's the place I was thinking of. I've heard them once or twice. "Shanwick" only needs a piece of wet string to pick it up here.

martinedwards

Poor Sod, he'll always be known as the bloke who DIDN'T save the planes.....

still, a great motivator for him to get on and pass his advanced exam and change callsign ASAP!!