Hacker demonstrates how to hijack an airplane using an Android app

[Guest]

In past, terrorist needs to bring several guns and/or bombs inside the plane without being detected to hijack an airplane.. now we only need a smartphone to hijack a plane remotely..

 

[Razer]

"mommy, mommy, look I got new radio control plane, it's Boeing 747!!"

 

[Guest]

ACTUALLY, they tell you to turn off your devices as the times before/during take off and before/during landing are the most critical to paying attention to instructions and your surroundings in the event of an emergency landing/crash. Kind of hard to be 100% alert if you're listening to music, etc.

 

[Guest]

Are you retarded they have to let you have your phone, if they didn't you would land in a foreign country with no phone

 

[Guest]

That idea crazy. Plane reroute golden land potato. All rejoice.

 

[The Droog]

Say bye-bye to using phones on planes.

You mean Assault Phones whose only purpose is mass murder?

 

[Guest]

Well!, if you can think it then it's possible. I understand what Hugo wanted to achieve by asking - What if?.

 

[madboyv1]

Are you retarded they have to let you have your phone, if they didn't you would land in a foreign country with no phone

The capacity for communication is more or less a right nowadays, but a cell phone is merely one of many mechanisms to facilitate it, and privilege to own and operate.

But yes, a scary possibility indeed, to think I just had a round trip flight a few days ago, and it was on time both times no less. =o

 

[Guest]

This app is now in the Google Store. Can't wait to try it out.

 

[PinothyJ]

ROADTRIP!

 

[pmshah]

And now I understand why they tell you to turn off your phone when flying!! I wont be flying anytime in the near future lol

Actually they tell you to turn off your phones because of the potential for unproven interruption with older flight equipment. Although it is largely a joke as it has been shown that the very pilots themselves keep their Tablets and Smartphones on to read flight plans and passengers rarely actually shut their phones off.

With the earlier non-smartphones one could not do anything with an installed sim. Could not even access the contact list. The current smartphones allow full accessibility with / without a sim card installed. This is to allow "Aircraft" mode where it suspends ALL wireless communication. I am pretty sure the tablets and the phones used by the pilots while flying would be in this mode.

 

[pmshah]

As much as I love tech.... Was anyone else bothered by the line that said, "A pilot could thwart an attack by taking the plane out of autopilot although he pointed out that several newer systems no longer include manual controls." Seriously, no manual controls. errr......

This is nothing new. When Airbus A300 was introduced some 25 years ago it too had no pilot overriding control. An incident has been rumored to have occurred at Kolkotta (Calcutta) where the Pilot of a flight felt that the plane had not reached the required speed to takeoff and wanted to abort but had no control. The plane went into auto mode and took off on its own. The crash at Bangalore some time in 1988/89 could also be attributed to this when the pilot could not override the automatic landing procedure. I was booked on that flight and was saved by preponing my schedule by 3 days,

 

[cliffordcooley]

I was booked on that flight and was saved by preponing my schedule by 3 days,

O.O

Ohhh My!!

 

[Guest]

Will this work on rockets? Have somebody with an I-phone turn the North Korean rocket right around and have it head back to where it came from.

 

[ghasmanjr]

I really don't think websites or conferences should post findings such as these because someone, somewhere out there is actually stupid enough to give this a shot.

 

[Tanstar]

There is no way, you can upload a FMS when it in flight, there are provisions to prevent that for any electronics. I wouldnt worry so much

Except the entire point of this article is that there is NOT any such security on modern planes.

 

[Tanstar]

Are you retarded they have to let you have your phone, if they didn't you would land in a foreign country with no phone

15 years ago cell phones were still pretty rare. 5 years ago international phones were rare. Most phones still have very limited options overseas. I'm not saying they should disallow smart phones on planes, just saying that people got fine without international phones not long ago at all.

 

[Guest]

This is BS.. "he used virtual planes in a lab to demonstrate his ability to hijack a plane",

so he did not hijack anything really....

 

[Guest]

So many problems with this article. Somebody doesn't know how aircraft/aviation works. There would have to be so much insider knowledge to make this type of effort work and even then it is highly doubtful.

 

[Guest]

I'm an airline pilot and air travel writer/blogger. This story is mostly garbage -- just wild technological extrapolation, and not very realistic.

Here's a rebuttal that I published on my home page....

www.askthepilot.com

- PS

 

[cliffordcooley]

Here's a rebuttal that I published on my home page....
www.askthepilot.com

Thanks for the link and explanation of this topic.

 

[Guest]

This would also affect the new Boeing dreamliner but that's nor really in use yet.

Pmshah, A whole post just to get in the word "preponing" .. LOL. I bet you've been scouring the web for days for that chance. *I* thank god your still alive.

 

[Guest]

Because it's mostly inaccurate or downright wrong. Makes good clickbait though.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Pmshah, A whole post just to get in the word "preponing" .. LOL. I bet you've been scouring the web for days for that chance. *I* thank god your still alive.

What is your problem? Seriously! Why did you say that? Talk about contributing to the webs bad attitude.

 

[tmcarr]

Newer systems no longer contain manual controls?

If that's referring to fly-by-wire instead of the older-style flight controls, that's still not something that could be taken over by someone with a computer or a phone. There's no way that someone outside the cockpit could actually take the control of flight away from two pilots sitting behind a yoke.

If he has access to the computer that relays the yokes commands "over the wire" to the actuators... then he has control of the plane. He just intercepts the signals and changes what they say... simple as that. Basic BASIC man in the middle attack.