The hobby that can land you in jail

WHEN Tony Jones was 12 his parents took him to Heathrow to see a plane. Not just any old plane, but a Bristol Brabazon, which laid the foundations for the later, more successful, Viscounts and Comets.

And so, perhaps unwittingly, his parents started off an obsession which has lasted for more than 40 years.

"It had eight engines, four at the front and four at the back. It was huge, it was different, and it caught my imagination," he says.

"It is a hobby, just like any other hobby and I have hardly ever stopped since."

It may be a hobby but it is one which has landed 12 Britons in a Greek jail. The 11 men and one women, including 32-year-old Andrew Jenkins from York, were arrested at an air base, where they were noting down numbers and taking photographs, and accused of spying.

Despite having written permission from the Greek ministry of defence and a letter from a brigadier in the Greek air force, inviting them to attend open days at military airfields, their protestations that it was all just an innocent hobby have so far gone unheeded and they are expected to spend up to 13 more days in prison awaiting a further hearing.

A Greek embassy spokesman yesterday said the 12 had not told the full story when they were first arrested, failing to mention that they had previously been warned off another air base. But pressure on the Greek government to drop the charges, which carry a maximum 20-year jail sentence, grew as European Parliament president Nicole Fontaine urged them to bring a swift end to what is becoming a major diplomatic incident.

But, while taking down numbers of planes and ticking them off in a book may seem incomprehensible to some, according to Tony, of enthusiasts' group Air Britain Historian, which has more than 4,000 members worldwide, it is no different from any other pastime. "What is it that attracts people to collect stamps, or Dinky toys?

"I read once that the Western world has a collecting instinct, and there is another instinct for completeness. We want sets of things, and if something sparks us off we have to collect it. I think a lot of plane spotters started off doing something like this with trains or buses, and then moved up the technology ladder.

"And the airplane world is a very rapidly changing one. Airplanes are changing their colours all the time, and airlines are always changing their names.

Planes are also extremely modern, and they cultivate an interest in a lot of other things. Although the so-called aviation enthusiast probably would not think about it, they are probably getting a great deal of information about other things at the same time."

An interest in planes, he explains, can also lead the enthusiast to find out about the country the aircraft come from, about its political situation and relations with its neighbours. But, the principal aim is to take note of every plane they see, or at least those they are interested in.

"Most so-called airplane spotters started off wanting to achieve completeness, so every time they see an airplane that is listed in their book, they underline it and write alongside it that they saw it in such a place," Tony says. "Of course, those books are now computer programmes. People note the airplane they have seen and then they want to see the rest of the fleet. But some of our members work very hard at researching the history of aircraft - most people grow away from just collecting numbers. It is a bit limited, because you are not discovering anything."

But the number of people getting into planespotting is increasing all the time, according to Richard Cooper, deputy editor of Aircraft Illustrated magazine. "It is growing," he says. "I think the profile of it has been lifted considerably and interest is certainly much higher than it was maybe five years ago." He says the hard-core planespotters tend to be middle-aged men, surprisingly. "It's very much male orientated, I have to say. I don't know whether it's a men and machines kind of attraction, or what."

The ranks of plane enthusiasts can be divided into two distinct groups, according to Bob Jackson, a Darlington aviation expert who has written books on the operational histories of aircraft.

"A lot of them are interested in watching airplanes for the sheer love of it, but a lot of them are compiling files and lists," he says. "There are two types of aircraft enthusiasts: ones who like reading about aircraft and how they work, and others who are literally the equivalent of trainspotters.

'They go for the different kinds of markings, and some of them are little more than the equivalent of car number collectors, but they collect serial numbers of aircraft. It is so they can identify an individual aircraft and follow its career."

But, whereas information about UK planes is fairly easily available and widely published, some countries are less open about their air force. Israel is the only country in the world which does not have some sort of squadron codes or markings on its planes, and some others are cautious about giving too much away.

"The Balkan countries have always been very twitchy about it, and a similar thing happened when a few people were arrested in Yugoslavia a few years ago," Bob says. "It could be a possible security breach if people publish statistics like serial numbers. The ones that were missing might lead people to believe these were not in service. A particular air force might not have as many serviceable aircraft as it claims to have, and knowing the numbers of the ones in service would make that obvious."

But even with this level of secrecy, Bob is still surprised at the turn of events in Greece. "It seems an odd situation - perhaps there is more to it than meets the eye," he says. "They were at an air show and people take pictures at air shows.

"It is amazing when you go down to any air show, and there are literally thousands and thousands of people who turn up, and most of them want to collect the numbers from the planes. They know everything about these planes to the last rivet, they know everything you need to know."

But not everyone who likes planes can be put in this category. Some, like Bob himself, are just interested in what is, after all, one of the most revolutionary inventions of the 20th Century. Bob's own love for planes saw him fly light aircraft and work as an air correspondent. "I have been interested in planes all my life - there is just a serious fascination about a graceful looking craft."