Pirate Radio Stations A Problem In Ireland, Too

Earlier this year, Aero-News reported on how broadcasts from "Da Streetz" --  a pirate radio station brodcasting to Cuban immigrants -- were wrecking havoc with transmissions from ATC and planes landing at Miami International Airport. The FAA eventually shut that station down... but Irish broadcasting regulators now face a similar problem, from an unlikely source: Da Priestz.

More accurately, pirate radio stations run by Roman Catholic priests -- to broadcast sermons to housebound parishoners -- are suspected of creating a potential safety hazard for jets traversing the Atlantic.

Reuters reports that flight crews on trans-Atlantic routes have complained for more than a year that the word of God has been piped into their cockpits over approach frequencies as they cross the Emerald Isle... often making controller transmissions difficult to hear or plain unreadable.

"We believe that (the Mass broadcasts) are possibly the source of the interference. I understand that [Irish communications regulator] ComReg are closing down the priests for want of a better term," Irish Aviation Authority spokeswoman Lilian Cassin said.

So far, ComReg has visited three churches in central Ireland suspected of sending the illegal radio signals... to warn them their seemingly-innocuous transmissions could be creating problems for airplanes.

"I knew it was sort of a gray area but I didn’t know we were breaking the law," said one of the priests, Father Brendan Quinlan, told the Irish Independent.

In any case, it appears the priests will need to find another way to reach shut-ins... because at 35,000 feet, some shut-ins just don't want to be reached.

FMI: www.iaa.ie