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Comments (304)

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  neilv
  I once consulted on some aviation-related software (not the safety work prominent on my resume), and a company announcement came through, that you must never use a few specific words commonly heard in software development. The two no-no words I recall were "crash" and "bomb". Don't write them in code or documents, don't say them on the phone or videoconf, etc.Those terms have senses that people in aviation take extremely seriously, for extremely good reasons. A miscommunication can trigger a lot of life-critical emergency mode sudden effort and stress for people. Effort and stress that is occasionally extremely necessary.It made sense, once I thought of it.In this particular case, it sounds like it wasn't the teen's fault, nor even a teen being slightly edgy. Just an innocuous product that broadcast a very unfortunate name over Bluetooth. Not something most people would've predicted would be a problem.Yet, under the circumstances, with the information available, it also sounds like personnel were correct to follow the processes that were designed to prevent terrible disasters.
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  K0balt
  This is a hilariously stupid reaction to a stupidly hilarious decision made by a speaker manufacturer.And also a new vector for a ransom-attack on the Bluetooth namespace in certain environments via malicious BLE advertising. The worst thing that could have happened here was for someone to take this seriously.
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  Insanity
  Which bomb would advertise itself as such.. this is something I’d expect in the movie Airplane!, not something to happen in real life.
• tiffanyh
  No pilot will lose their job by taking action to potentially save passengers lives.But the chances are high, they do lose their job if they don't (and/or potentially lose their life as well).It's that simple.(regardless of how dumb/overreaction some might view this as)
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  xrd
  What's to prevent terrorists from going through TSA, waiting in the scanning line when everyone is still going through, and then planting a bluetooth device into someone else's bag? I never open my carryon once I have packed it.This reminds me of the SNL sketch where TSA employees had no answer for someone bringing two separate bottles of 3.9 ounces onto the plane.I'm sure Sean Duffy, of Real World and now Sec of Transportation, will fix this.
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  samgranieri
  A 16 year boy apparently named his Bluetooth speaker “bomb” and couldn’t turn it off, as it was probably in checked luggage. Woof.
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  CamelCaseName
  The Reddit thread on this was equal parts amazing and hilarious.Real time insights from not one, but 9, redditors on the flight.Main post: https://www.reddit.com/r/unitedairlines/s/57lugEMhxlAll the redditors on board: https://www.reddit.com/r/unitedairlines/s/Fh2KoqG4SYA passenger with a hilariously illtimed username: https://www.reddit.com/r/unitedairlines/s/W86tRI6ZVf
• firefax
  One thing I learned as a globe trotting cypherpunk: always respect sky law.
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  analogpixel
  I pine for the day when news is this:- Flight 767 returned to airport after seeing a bluetooth device named "BOMB"- After asking all passengers multiple times to turn off all devices and not getting the "BOMB" to go away, they flight had to return to the airport where officials were waiting to search the plane.- This was not intentional, but a product that calls it self "BOMB" https://hellottec.com/product/bomb-portable-bluetooth-speake...- Passengers on the plane commented of the event as it was going on in this reddit thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/unitedairlines/s/57lugEMhxlI guess I shouldn't pine, I can just have AI summarize all sources for me, and stop dealing with poor reporting that tries to drag 3 bullet points into multiple pages for the sake of selling ad space.
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  Bender
  People prank others all the time with goofy names [1] (2014) So are we at the point where that will change and devices will have to just assign random sanitized dictionary names? "Connect to my 'apple horse bunny farm'" There are programs that can flood an area with tens of thousands of fake access points (scapy-fakeap). Or thousands of drones for that matter. [2][1] - https://observer.com/2014/03/park-slope-kiddie-shop-hunts-fo...[2] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8jn_6EmYxE
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  mikeocool
  > a flight attendant told passengers over the PA system that they "must turn off Bluetooth immediately," or else the aircraft would have to turn around.So if the person just takes back their bomb threat everything is ok? Or did they think the terrorist labeled their Bluetooth bomb “bomb” and this would disable it?
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  notorandit
  Flight policies have always been very weird.I remember I was not allowed to use a laptop with a CD or DVD attached.Now you have internet on board.
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  tlogan
  And terrorists will:- communicate in English (because apparently even ancient Romans speak perfect English)- name the device “bomb”
• blitzar
  Looks like I picked a bad day to stop smoking crack.
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  opengrass
  Why would it land in New York instead of St John?
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  richstokes
  Andddd now everyone knows that an arbitrary text string in a device hostname is enough to ground a flight.
• RagnarD
  I hope somebody follows up to ensure that the kid isn't being punished for a completely unpredictable event involving a commercial device.
• kleton
  hellottec is down but a cdn mirror of the product: https://ams3.digitaloceanspaces.com/tesancdn/hellottec/2_BH_...
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  alfiedotwtf
  > "Free Palestine, F Zionists"Does the FBI usually get involved when someone says these words in public in the US?
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  IamCompliant
  This feels like one of those rare stories where everyone involved probably overreacted a little, but you can also understand why nobody wanted to be the person who ignored it.These phones should have limits of how much you can use the tech...
• wartywhoa23
  Oh gosh, sure, terrorists always name their devices "bomb" in the open.
• throw310822
  Does this story mean that anyone can disrupt flights by hiding on planes some minimal device with Bluetooth (say a pi zero), programmed to turn on only at random and after a few days?
• sammy2255
  IM THE BOMB AND ABOUT TO BLOW UPPPPPPPP
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  eudamoniac
  Even if you discount the possibility of an intentional threat as silly, this could have been a warning from someone under duress. Turning around was the right move.
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  justinhj
  This is like the Adam Sandler movie where he says bomb on an airplane. It's an overreaction, is it not? A terrorist is not going to call their bomb's bluetooth trigger bomb. Even if they are, are you telling me we have no idea whether there is a bomb in luggage or not?
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  puttycat
  What a usability nightmare this site is: 3-4 popups before I could even read the title. No thank you. And this is with an adblocker turned on.Don't these sites realize how many users they're losing?
• ChrisArchitect
  Earlier: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48342158
• anon
  undefined
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  outside1234
  Someone needs to explain to me how the name of a Bluetooth device has any bearing on anything. Isn’t the real security not letting a bomb on the plane?Also, now anyone who wants to disrupt a flight can switch their WiFi or Bluetooth name to Bomb or “Free Palestine” and the flight gets disrupted? Get out of here.
• epolanski
  > During this incident, a Wi-Fi hotspot named "Free Palestine, F Zionists" prompted the pilot to issue a warning to the cabin, telling the passenger responsible that they had "30 seconds" to remove the name or the FBI would meet the aircraft.Wtf?I can understand a bomb, but this is just free speech.
• piokoch
  ... I can't believe what I am reading..."Bluetooth speaker name had been set to a "four-letter word, [...] BOMB".Luckily, it wasn't named "Nuclear Bomb from Cuba" because US Authorities would not have other choice than to nuke Cuba.Seriously? What those people are doing when they see a fence with "ASS" painted on it? Do they believe that too?
• booleandilemma
  [dead]
• falcons-edge
  [dead]
• BlueBerry2001
  GOATed plane, love the engine power.