Baby broadcast baffles pilots
Monday, May 19, 2003 Posted: 10:09 PM EDT (0209 GMT)
LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Instead of landing instructions, aircraft approaching Britain's Luton airport heard the squealing of tiny infant Freya Spratley broadcast over their radios.
Authorities worked 12 hours to track the frequency and determined that a baby monitor at mother Lisa Spratley's house, located near the airport, was broadcasting her baby's cries to the cockpits of approaching planes, the BBC reported on Monday.
"It was like something out of the Ghostbusters. They came down the path and stopped me and said we'd like to check something inside the house," Lisa Spratley told the station.
"They said they were working on behalf of Luton airport traffic control. They'd been asked to sort out interference they'd been receiving on the airwaves and had tracked it down to our address."
The BBC said there was no threat to safety: pilots who heard the infant Freya instead of air traffic control were able to switch to a different frequency.
The company that made the baby monitor supplied the Spratleys with a new one.
And little Freya seemed to have little idea of the commotion she had caused.
