Hacking an airliner with a cell phone

[Phil Bunch]

A remarkable story:

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-04-12/hacking-an-airplane-with-only-an-android-phone#r=rss

Maybe we don't need PSX - we can just take over a real airliner whenever we get the urge!!!

[Hardy Heinlin]

I always fear that certain people who have little knowledge about aviation, but who are in a powerful position, could misinterprete jokes that contain keywords like "airliner", "hacking", "remote control" etc. in combination with "PSX".

Google and the Internet is big, and as big as it is, as stupid it is. We on the forum here understand the irony, but the forum quotes in the search engines don't.

In other words, I think this is one of the topics where GRIN marks are particularly important.


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[Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers]

... I fear that GRIN Marks are not understood by the same people in a powerful position ...

[Hardy Heinlin]

I fear you're right :-)

[Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers]

In any case the FAA has already stated that hacking a simulator is not the same as hacking the real aircraft.

[Phil Bunch]

I apologize for not making it 100% clear that I posted this info as humor and that I was actually making fun of this very absurd news story.  In retrospect, the authorities might somehow misinterpret my humorous post as literal and draw all sorts of unwarranted conclusions about me and/or PSX.  This is especially difficult when one only has text for the forum and perhaps a few emoticons to work with, as Jeroen mentions.   I'm sure most of us have had experiences in real life where one's attempted humor or satire has blown up and caused many unintended consequences.   Of course I wouldn't want to do anything to accidentally harm PSX or any of our forum members, professional contributors, etc.

I can't recall if I've previously described a real situation that happened to me while on a flight in the US, some years before the 911 terrorism events.  Anyway, I was merrily flying PS1 on my laptop, during a flight.  I was using PS1 to simulate the real airliner's path as we flew from the midwest to the east coast.  A middle-aged stewardess noticed the realistically displayed, visibly active instrument panel on my laptop, and stopped at my seat row.  Of course PS1 looked very real, even to close inspection, and did seem to show a real airliner in flight.

The stewardess angrily said (paraphrasing) "I see what you're doing.  That's our instrument panel - you're controlling the airplane!  I'm going to tell the Captain!!"  Without any further discussion, she walked very rapidly towards the front of the plane, talked briefly on the intercom/phone, and then disappeared into the cockpit, closing the cockpit door behind her.  A minute or so later, she exited the cockpit as quickly as she entered, but her face had turned quite red and she looked very embarrassed and angry.  She refused to even look at me as she walked past my row, so I breathed a sigh of relief and continued my (simulated) flight.  It wasn't hard to guess what the Captain might have said to her, and I was glad the situation had quickly resolved itself.  I had become very concerned that I might be detained and harassed endlessly by the authorities, worrying that I would somehow have to prove that I didn't want to control an airliner.  Of course it is always hard or impossible to prove a negative assertion.  Just the thought of spending hours or even days being interrogated by the authorities about such a thing was most unpleasant to consider, of course.  

Maybe we need to ask Hardy to place a watermark-like text message on all PSX screens, something like "THIS IS ONLY A COMPUTER SIMULATION - NO REAL AIRLINERS ARE BEING CONTROLLED".  (insert many friendly grins here)