Boy's TV aerial interfered with aircraft

A schoolboy was stunned when Government officials swooped on his bedroom and confiscated his TV aerial - because it was interfering with planes landing at a nearby airport. Nickie Chamberlain, 12, had used the booster device for two years to watch cartoons, music channels and Big Brother on his 14-inch television.

But three weeks ago an official from the Office of Communications (Ofcom) turned up at his home claiming the £15 aerial was affecting planes landing at Luton Airport. According to Ofcom, pilots coming in to land at the airport had lost contact with the control tower because the faulty aerial was transmitting on the same frequency as the cockpit radios.

The communication problems meant pilots landing their aircraft had to scramble to change the frequency so they could continue to communicate with the control tower. An Ofcom engineer was sent to the house and he used a handheld device to trace the signal to the small booster aerial sitting on top of Nickie's television.



His father, DHL operations manager Dave Chamberlain, 46, spoke of his shock and said he could not believe a tiny aerial could affect aeroplanes flying over his house. He said: 'We were told pilots flying over the house were losing contact with the control tower as they came into land.

'The engineer was waiting outside the house when I came home from work and told me pilots had been complaining and they had traced the signal to our house. I couldn't believe it and at first I thought the engineer was some sort of conman so I had to carefully check his identification and make sure he was for real.'

Nickie, who lives in the three bedroom semi-detached house with his dad, brother Glenn, 14, and mother Erika, 42, said he was amazed he had caused so much trouble. He said: 'When I found out what happened I was upset because I couldn't watch cartoons or the television for a while - but it's better than causing a plane crash.'