By Amateur transportation enthusiasts are often the subject of light-hearted derision in popular culture and the media. Assigned nicknames such as “planespotters” and “foamers,” these are the hobbyist communities and retired engineers who love trains, fighter jets, ships, and rockets so much that they photograph them in all weather conditions, and debate the latest subtle model updates in online chatrooms.
But investigative journalists at the recent NICAR25 data journalism summit said that — despite being focused on these technologies, rather than the newsworthy issues around them — these enthusiasts are a valuable, media-friendly, and underused source of critical tips and information, along with specialist industry magazines. And that watchdog reporters should therefore use “creative googling” to find these sources on obscure websites and forums such as Reddit when identifying or tracking a target vehicle, and to learn the industry jargon for onward document search.
Last year, investigators at the open source investigative nonprofit group Bellingcat were initially stumped in their effort to identify a capsized ship that created a vast oil spill on the Caribbean island of Tobago. There was nothing but social media images of an upside-down, orange-colored ship hull to work from. But Bellingcat researcher Logan Williams revealed at NICAR that he was able to tap the technical knowledge of separate sets of maritime hobbyists to get the investigation going.
First, one knowledgeable enthusiast on the ShipSpotting.com forum noted that a series of spots on that hull were “pigeon hole” ladders, which no powered ship would need, since ships always have crew to help others to climb aboard. Williams discovered this vessel was not a ship at all, but a towed barge. “This was important because barges are registered differently, they have less information on their location,” Williams explained.
But how could he find the tug that towed it? Williams googled around and found the tug via an obscure but detailed enthusiast website called tugboatinformation.com.
An image of a capsized vessel – later identified as a towed barge – and the start of its 10-kilometer-long oil slick off the coast of Tobago. Bellingcat tapped marine hobbyists’ knowledge to eventually identify the boat’s name and more details about its origin. Image: Screenshot, Office of the Chief Secretary of Tobago
Helena Bengtsson, a data editor at Sweden’s Gota Media, said Swedish reporters, such as Fredrik Laurin, had used the persistence and technical skills of planespotter enthusiasts to lead global investigations into the CIA’s rendition flights for alleged terrorists. She said that these hobbyists are generally delighted to help reporters with details such as tail numbers, ownership, and tracking, as they did with the Gulfstream V rendition jet that Laurin exposed, with the tail number N379P.
“But there is a problem with these amateur sources,” Bengtsson warned. “They are often not consistent, they don’t collect everything, they sometimes get things wrong, and in some cases they can be activists.”
Some enthusiast sites offer industry news, and are monetized with merchandise and advertising. Experts also warn that some knowledgeable amateurs are “fanboys” who might favor one brand or model of a vehicle over others, and that their databases often don’t explain their limits or methodology.
There are thousands of enthusiast sites and chat groups on the internet. Irene Casado Sanchez, a data journalist at Big Local News, suggested that reporters find these groups on Reddit, or with Google search terms likely to appear on related sites, such as “log a sighting” and “forum.” “The social media groups are not always easy to find, but I would use target search in Google, with the term and, say, ‘site:facebook.com,’” said Casado Sanchez. “If I see someone who is prolific on Reddit or Facebook about trains or planes in a particular context, then I would just reach out to see what they know.”
Williams noted that reliable examples include these:
- For civilian aircraft: Jetphotos.com and Airliners.net
- For shipping: Bosphorus Observer and ShipSpotting.com
- For rockets: NASAspaceflight (not affiliated to NASA, the agency) and LabPadre.
- For military aircraft and squadrons: industry magazines such as Airforces Monthly and Times Aerospace.
“Some of these sites may be under-known; they’re often run by people whose hobby is to go out to the harbor and take photos of ships,” said Williams. “One guy from Istanbul who goes by the ‘Bosphorus Observer’ online — we’ve worked with him on several stories. He will take photos of almost every interesting ship passing through the Bosphorus, and that’s been super-interesting with the Black Sea military fleets coming in and out; the grain smuggling.”
Williams said an equally important benefit of enthusiast groups is their revelation of key industry terms for onward search. For instance, he said a colleague’s investigation into nuclear weapons storage in Europe was unlocked after learning from chat forums that “WS3” stands for “weapons storage and security system,” and that “PAS” is the term you need to search to find aircraft shelters. Combined with the term “vault” for bomb storage, these terms led Bellingcat researcher Foeke Postma directly to evidence of shocking security breaches.
Once the Bellingcat researcher learned of the importance of the “WS3” terminology from enthusiast chat forums, he was able to zero in on other resources for his story, including a map published online in 2010 showing “Hangars with WS3-Vaults” at Volkel Air Base in the Netherlands. Image: Screenshot, Bellingcat
“The terminology is really important for what I call creative googling,” explained Williams. “In that case, once [Postma] started using industry terms like WS3, and PAS, he was able to find flashcards made by soldiers studying to remember security systems for the nuclear bases they were stationed at.” The investigation found that publicly visible learning apps for those flashcards “inadvertently revealed a multitude of sensitive security protocols about US nuclear weapons and bases at which they are stored.”
