
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, June 22, 1995                   TAG: 9506220074
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Short

FEDERAL APPEALS COURT UPHOLDS `ROANOKE PHANTOM' SENTENCE

A federal appeals court Wednesday upheld a 124-month prison sentence for a man who used a mail-order aviation transmitter to give bogus instructions to pilots at Roanoke Regional Airport.

Rodney Bocook pleaded guilty to endangering aircraft and broadcasting obscene language over the airwaves. Under federal sentencing guidelines, he was expected to receive only about two years in prison.

Instead, he was given an enhanced sentence for intentionally endangering aircraft. On appeal, he argued there was no evidence he intended to jeopardize airplanes and their occupants.

A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed, ruling that Bocook ``cannot reasonably claim to have been unaware of the hazard he created.''

Bocook, an out-of-work janitor, instructed pilots to break off their landings at the last minute and change altitudes and direction. He also posed as a pilot making a ``Mayday'' distress call.

The airwave piracy at Roanoke Regional Airport went on for six weeks in 1993 before Federal Aviation Administration agents using radio receivers and directional antenna equipment tracked him down.

Bocook's transmissions did not cause any accidents. The real air-traffic controllers, who dubbed Bocook the ``Roanoke Phantom,'' always were able to correct his bogus instructions.

by CNB