Watching Planes Closely

‘Watching planes closely and recording their serial or registration numbers and squadron markings goes back to the last days of the Blitz, when the first issue of the Aeroplane Spotter appeared, a 12-page periodical intended to improve the quality of aircraft recognition among British civilian air defence volunteers. It included photos and silhouettes of the major aircraft types, both friend and foe, and was the first publication to pay attention to military serial numbers, changes in the registry of civilian aircraft, camouflage schemes, squadron markings and unusual insignia. Such markings are important because, once a database has been compiled, an analyst can use it to infer how many aircraft of a particular type or its variants are in circulation, to deduce the size and composition of squadrons, and to keep track of sales, modifications and losses. The Aeroplane Spotter’s legacy lives on in the activities of today’s spotters, including their websites, which publish not just photos and data but also details of search engines that can trace virtually any aircraft through its serial or registration number.

For example: http://travel.flightexplorer.com/about.aspx and http://fboweb.com/fb40/default.aspx

‘Spotters began to expose the CIA’s rendition capers to public scrutiny less than six weeks after 9/11. This was almost inevitable, given that the Agency had chosen to conduct its abductions via the world of civil aviation. The CIA’s operatives seem not to have understood or cared that at all hours of the day and night international airports are simply alive with people – aircrews, flight controllers, ticket clerks, baggage handlers, refuellers, cleaners, police and customs officers, and passengers – who are alert to everything going on around them. Nor was this the only instance of incompetence displayed by the CIA in running its rendition programme.’

From Chalmers Johnson's review of ‘Ghost Plane: The Inside Story of the CIA's Secret Rendition Programme’ by Stephen Grey (http://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n03/john04_.html, 8/2/2007).

http://www.statewatch.org/rendition/rendition.html

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article2936782.ece
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/oct/26/usa.topstories3