`Phantom' Radio Operator Transmits Phony Air-Traffic Instructions To Pilots

ROANOKE, Va. - Using a transmitter and manuals anyone could buy through the mail, a man dubbed the Roanoke Phantom posed as an air-traffic controller and gave pilots bogus instructions.

The airwaves piracy went on for six weeks before Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) agents traced most of the signals to a car near Roanoke Regional Airport.

Rodney E. Bocook, 27, an unemployed janitor, was charged with communicating information that endangered the safety of aircraft. He could get 22 years in prison. A trial will be scheduled after he undergoes a psychiatric evaluation.

None of the phony transmissions caused any accidents or close calls, though some pilots followed some of the instructions, FAA spokesman Paul Steucke said.

Bocook was arrested Sept. 22. In his living room, federal agents found an aviation transmitter that can be bought from mail-order companies for about $500; directories on airport navigation, aeronautical frequencies and radio transmissions; two radio scanners; and tape recorders.

The Roanoke Phantom, as he was called by controllers, told pilots of commercial and private planes to break off their landings at the last minute or change altitudes. He also transmitted a phony distress call about an ultralight aircraft.

FAA spokesmen said voiceless technology would eliminate the danger by 1997, because controllers would be able to communicate with pilots via display screens and printers.