Hotel room recommended by friend to Brits for view

New Delhi: The two British plane spotters, arrested in Delhi last week, were asked by one of their friends from Bristol to hire a particular room at Radisson Hotel because it gave them a better view for aircraft spotting. The friend, Kevin Stokes, along with another person, Alastair James Huggins, had stayed in the same room (No 464) for three days in January from where the two —Steven Martin Ayres (55) and Stephen Hampston (46) — were held.
Speaking to TOI over phone, Hampston refused to comment on the case. ‘‘I do not want to make any comment till the court case is over,’’ he said. Police said he had called up his home and broke down while narrating his ordeal.
He and Ayres had been booked under the Indian Telegraph Act and were on Tuesday granted bail by a Delhi court. They were charged with carrying an SBS 1ER, popularly known as S BOX, which monitors and records the movement of aircraft. After recording the details of the aircraft like altitude, call sign etc., they used to decode the information on their laptop with the help of a software called Base Station, which can be easily downloaded from the internet.
The court asked the accused not to leave India without prior permission from it. Their passports have been returned to them.
Both are employed with First Great Western Railways Limited in Bristol. Hampston belongs to Keynsham in Bristol and works as a railway conductor while Ayres works at St Philip’s Marsh. Police said Ayres was not carrying any mobile phone and had only a pair of binoculars and a notepad.
24/02/10 Rahul Tripathi/Times of India

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Categories: Airports Feb 2010, Foreign Feb 2010