Officials say the incident happened in late May, when a THY night flight was nearing İstanbul Atatürk Airport for landing. As the plane started its descent, relying on the airport's instrument landing system, an ATC message ordered the pilot to divert the plane in another direction. The unsuspecting pilots took the message -- relayed in complete compliance with air traffic controllers' conduct -- to be real and changed the flight direction. Ground-based air traffic controllers, alarmed by the plane's unexpected change of course, warned the pilots, who then continued their descent and were able to land safely. The pirate air traffic controller, who has yet not been identified, attempted to give new orders to other incoming planes about five minutes after the incident. Air traffic controllers who had understood that there was an illegal interception had by then warned the nearing pilots about possible pirate messages. Officials said it wasn't surprising that THY pilots followed for the wrong order, as the speaker had a good command of aviation terminology and the English language.
The DHMİ on Tuesday announced that an investigation has been launched into the fake intercept. Experts are trying to establish the coordinates of the location from which the message came.
Experts said the fake ATC order was most probably transmitted through an air-band radio, radio receivers with no legal restrictions on their sale. Although the Radio General Directorate registers every purchase, air-band radio sets are widely available online without questioning the buyer's background or intended purpose for use. An official at the DHMİ said uncontrolled sale of air-band radio sets was a risk to flight safety.
