United Airlines Flight To Spain Pulls U-Turn Over Bluetooth Device Name 164
Tony Isaac shares a report from NPR: A United Airlines flight traveling from Newark, New Jersey, to Palma de Mallorca, Spain, was forced to make a U-turn and return to Newark after more than four hours in the air due to a security concern. According to passenger reports and air traffic control audio, the disruption was caused by a personal Bluetooth speaker -- reportedly belonging to a teenager -- that had been named "BOMB." Upon returning to Newark, passengers were evacuated so that security details could inspect the entire aircraft and cargo area. The flight was ultimately cleared, reboarded, and arrived at its destination in Spain approximately nine and a half hours behind schedule. Multiple posts on social media from self-identified passengers indicate that the problem was a Bluetooth device on board the plane. One post referenced in-flight announcements with "lots of comments like 'this little joke is ruining it for everyone.'"
Audio from air traffic control sheds a little more light on the situation: "There's a security detail out there, someone had a Bluetooth speaker and they named it a certain four-letter word," another voice responded. "So they have to inspect the whole aircraft including the cargo area [and] passengers have to evacuate."
Audio from air traffic control sheds a little more light on the situation: "There's a security detail out there, someone had a Bluetooth speaker and they named it a certain four-letter word," another voice responded. "So they have to inspect the whole aircraft including the cargo area [and] passengers have to evacuate."
"Average" bomber. (Score:5, Funny)
Joke only works if one assume any bomber wouldn't be dumb enough to announce the fact.
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At this point all their base, did in fact, belong to them.
At this point CATS was just doing a villain monologue on screen.
Re:"Average" bomber. (Score:4, Funny)
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Land of the free, home of the brave.
It may have been true at some point..
Re:"Average" bomber. (Score:5, Insightful)
I was just reading this comment on another social site:
"Any statement that starts with "No one would be stupid enough to..." is false."
Re:"Average" bomber. (Score:4, Interesting)
I was just reading this comment on another social site:
"Any statement that starts with "No one would be stupid enough to..." is false."
There's probably too much metal between the cargo hold and the passenger compartment for Bluetooth to work anyway. I think all actual bombs on aircraft (other than the failed shoe bomber) have been triggered by pressure switches at altitude or timers.
So it's not just that they wouldn't be stupid enough, but also that it probably wouldn't be successful even if they were.
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After all, don't you watch the movies. Every bomb comes with blinky led lights and a red count down timer so it can be easily found. Dont forget the exposed red wire for easy disarmament
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How did the dumbass get on the plane? Did he not have to power on his phone at the (laughable) security screening?
Pro-tip: If you're going to try something like this, at least use a name like Delta, or better yet, Qantas or Aeroflot.
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The real bomb is called "boom box".
So the clever hijackers (Score:2)
...will name their device "SAFE". I mean, it's an impossible situation. "How dare you not take it seriously" versus "how dare you waste 9+ hours of my life - and all the other passengers' lives - unnecessarily.
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Makes me wonder if they would have turned around if it was named "Not a bomb"
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There is a movie scene about this "Meet the parents" (Jay Roach, 2000)
- I said, "it's not like I have a bomb"
- "You can't say "bomb" on an airplane".
Of course it's fiction but it depicts the social expectations. Saying "bomb" or even "not a bomb" can cause distress in other passengers (reactions which are also depicted in the movie) and therefore will have you taken off.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Probably this speaker tbh (Score:3, Funny)
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Pretty sure it was this one.
https://hellottec.com/product/... [hellottec.com]
Barry (Score:4, Funny)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
"My Bluetooth isn't paring with the device I'm trying to denotate..."
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"My Bluetooth isn't paring with the device I'm trying to denotate..."
Denotating it is exactly what the Bluetooth name does. *Detonating* it, on the other hand...
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And if he's trying to "pare" it, a small, sharp knife would probably work better.
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On a commercial airplane? Only if you order steak.
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I hate it when that [brown.edu] happens!
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a nokia bomb!! that is indestructible!!
If you don't want to go to Spain (Score:2)
Just say No hablo el lenguaje de conquistadores
So you picked a four-letter word instead
What could go wrong
The worst part is... (Score:2)
Stupid people doing stupid things is somehow (Score:2)
usually an American. We have our version of "Americans" within America, they live in Florida.
There is no reason to pay attention to wireless ID names or t-shirts... where are the rational adults? Simply because somebody makes a joke the brains all turn 100% off and they act like robots... except by the time robots are running things, it's likely the chatbot will not be so stupid as to over react like this.
Even a small child knows to lie about sneaking a cookie they do not openly eat the thing when they are
The 1990s slang phrase... (Score:2)
The 1990s slang phrase is back! Here:
https://memes.yarn.co/yarn-cli... [memes.yarn.co]
--JoshK.
Recipe for disaster (Score:5, Funny)
Oops. Did I just make Slashdot do a U-turn?
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Labeling your item with a generic "BOMB" is such a rookie mistake. Always - always! - use more descriptive bluetooth name so you know exactly which device you are controlling. E.g., "cmdrtaco's BOMB".
The name of the product is "Bomb" [hellottec.com], and "Bomb" is the default Bluetooth name.
I don't know whether that makes you advice invalid, or all the more salient.
Oops. Did I just make Slashdot do a U-turn?
ROTFL
Bluetooth enabled bombs now (Score:2)
Sucks, because you have to be within 30 feet of the bomb now to detonate it.
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Oh don't worry. We have connected aircraft now, and ESP32s are cheap!
Well that practical joke bombed (Score:2)
I followed it in real time (Score:5, Interesting)
I followed this is real time on Reddit. People from onboard were relaying the messages from the crew and people on Reddit were tracking the flight, observing the u-turn.
Apparently it's a bluetooth speaker that the manufacturer names "Bomb". I'm not sure how much blame the kid deserves.
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That's beyond a stupid decision by the manufacturer.
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Bluetooth yes. But I have a wired mini-speaker in the shape of a bomb.
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How did they identify the device out of hundreds of passengers? It's a little disconcerting that they're surveilling private Bluetooth connections: I notice that no-one complained about that. Also notice, the authority figures blaming the child: Authority figures with a 'world owes me' attitude. To be fair, it's the US TSA with a 'world owes me' attitude, the cockpit
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How did they identify the device out of hundreds of passengers?
They didn't. All the crew knew was that there was a bluetooth device in pairing mode named "Bomb". The crew asked all passengers to turn off all devices.
It's a little disconcerting that they're surveilling private Bluetooth connections:
Nobody surveilled anything.
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You're thinking of "bombe" machines.
Remember: Don't greet friend Jack in airport! (Score:4, Funny)
FBI SURVEILANCE VAN (Score:2)
This reminds me of the (still badly) running joke that people name their WIFI routers. I had a friend who used to freak out over that, and I'd always respond with "cmon, you *really* think the FBI would be that obvious? His conservative conspiracy mind was hard to over-ride.
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Same, I had that for a while.
The wifi names were "Surveillance Van 5" and "Surveillance Van 24" for 5Ghz and 2.4GHz channel. I set the family's cell phones network device names "Surveillance Operator 1", "Surveillance Operator 2", "Surveillance Operator 3", and "Surveillance Operator 4". For house guests sometimes it got a chuckle, "connect to surveillance van 24". I know when I went to friends who took their networks seriously, I had someone ask about it.
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Hey, there's one of those in MY neighborhood too! Clearly, the FBI is *EVERYWHERE*!
Reminds me (Score:2)
Of every tv show where a bomb has a convenient countdown clock on it. In the old days it was an alarm clock wired to the bomb, then it was changed to a red digital timer because progress.
Anyone remember the movie V for Vendetta? Conveniently, V's bomb in the control room had a countdown clock so the guy who had no idea what he was doing knew how many seconds he had left.
Commercial Speaker's Own Name? (Score:2)
Did the teen admit to naming his bluetooth device "BOMB" or did he have a "BOMB" Model bluetooth speaker, like this one
https://www.galaxus.ch/en/s1/p... [galaxus.ch]
that came prenamed at the factory?
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That site is blocking VPN clients (sus) but here's another one you can pick up at CVS:
https://www.cvs.com/shop/ijoy-... [cvs.com]
Imagine how much jet fuel was wasted on being stupid.
it's over, the terrorists have won (Score:4, Insightful)
Clearly we're all terrified now, so I'd say their job is done.
They can just sit back and relax and watch us all live in fear.
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Were we terrified? By all accounts the passengers seemed annoyed by the entire ordeal, and the bureaucracy (corporate and regulatory) not terrified.
The kid didn't even put the BOOM in the BOOM BOX (Score:2)
Irrational security (Score:2)
The bluetooth name has nothing to do with security. It is more likely that MattsSpeaker is a bomb than the thing named BOMB. Any number of things with no bluetooth or bluetooth turned off are also more likely to be a bomb than the bluetooth thing called BOMB.
what was the point of turning around (Score:2)
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Right! That's what I was wondering too. Is Barcelona somehow less capable of dealing with a possible bomb?
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Aborting is standard practice for such things for multiple reasons:
1. Regulatory / legal: Dealing with potential problem people in a source country is preferable to just telling the destination country: "Yo bruh we're bringing a terrorist over, can you pick him up so that we can go through a lengthy extradition process to get him back?"
2. Opsec: The "bomb" hadn't exploded yet. You don't know why it hadn't exploded. Maybe it was timer based. Maybe it was GPS coordinate based. Maybe the target was the airport
Even dumber than I thought. (Score:5, Interesting)
Not only did they panic over a poorly chosen Bluetooth device name, they turned around AT or just past the halfway point, apparently to maximize the damage and inconvenience. They could just as well have continued as normal and sorted it out at the destination.
The Gap Band (Score:2)
Please tell the speaker was playing You Dropped a Bomb On Me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Re:Unconstitutional (Score:5, Informative)
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Not to mention that United Airlines is a private business, which means it's not just a question of what is legal anyway. United also has a fair bit of latitude in terms of what is considered acceptable behavior on the part of its customers (passengers).
Re:Unconstitutional (Score:4, Insightful)
It's not up to United, it's up to the TSA.
Don't worry, soon they'll be tearing your glued together phone apart to check for bombs, and then making you reassemble it before you board (if it'll even go back together), and they'll cut your toothbrush apart to make sure it's not a weapon (which will make it a weapon, so they have to confiscate it).
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Hard to dismiss that as an unreasonable step considering a few thousand pagers distributed to suspected terrorists had a small load of plastic explosives in them a year or so ago!
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I remember that.
I know it's "hard to dismiss that as an unreasonable step" for TSA to destroy your phone and smartwatch, toothbrush, take scissors to your clothes, and so on.
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How about perform an exploratory laparotomy just in case you implanted a bomb?
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That's how they did it in "Saturn's Race" by Larry Niven. They replaced his femur with high explosive and triggered it via remote control.
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At least nobody has (yet?) tried to make a suppository bomb.
Not sure I'd be happy with *those* sorts of screenings...
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https://www.taipeitimes.com/Ne... [taipeitimes.com]
Re:Unconstitutional (Score:5, Insightful)
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"Ultimately, whether it is legal in the United States to falsely shout "fire" in a theater depends on the circumstances in which it is done and the consequences of doing it. The act of shouting "fire" when there are no reasonable grounds for believing one exists is not in itself a crime, and nor would it be rendered a crime merely by having been carried out inside a theatre, crowded or otherwise. "
If you were trying to show that it is illegal, you made a poor choice.
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I should have said unconstitutional.
As it stands there are other laws that deal specifically with flying that could very much make this illegal, and probably do.
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I doubt it rises to that level. The device had a name that happened to be Bomb. Yelling FIRE is a specific communication of a dangerous condition.
Re:Unconstitutional (Score:4, Funny)
Israel would shoot them down.
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You realize that's the point, right?
Re: Unconstitutional (Score:2)
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You're allowed to name your device whatever you want. What law did they break?
What do you mean law? Who has been charged? Who is in jail? What does any of this have to do with the law or constitution?
Re:Consequences? (Score:5, Insightful)
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There is a story about a math teacher in a flight in the USA, he was taking notes, mostly equations while flying. His neighbour was a lady who could not read a thing of what he wrote. But panicked he would be terrorist.
Seriously: he is writing in a paper booklet, that made him a terrorist ...
For some odd reason the crew emergency landed the flight.
I guess with some google fu you find the story ... it was a few years ago, but not very long.
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Although to be fair, I'm generally suspicious of economists.
Re:Consequences? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Consequences? (Score:5, Informative)
I don't think the kid did anything at all.
https://hellottec.com/product/... [hellottec.com]
Re:Consequences? (Score:5, Informative)
Choose Bomb from you phone's bluetooth menu and pair with your phone.
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The teenager's parents didn't turn the plane around for a non-issue, so why would they be able to do that?
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Next time he'll name his bluetooth device "SUPER NOT A BOMB" and I'm sure he'll be just fine.
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You can't rename a Bluetooth speaker. Blame the manufacturer, not the kid who owned it.
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Bullshit. Maybe you can't. I can.
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I can't either, so we're already up to a majority of people, if you can extrapolate from this thread.
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Some, you can. It all depends on what the device manufacturer allows changing in the firmware.
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You think every plane is equipped with a BT sniffer? You think that even if a BT speaker were identified as the source, it couldn't have a bomb inside?
They didn't "overreact." Long before they turned around, multiple announcements were made to turn off all BT devices. [nj.com] The reprobate didn't obey instructions from the flight cr
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Maybe he thought it was off.
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Maybe he thought it was off.
I had one (from a major manufacturer with products that are common in USA retail stores) that actually could not be turned off. I didn't realize it for two years, because I always manually pressed the button to turn it on and off. It was just a cheap, plain, passive speaker; not a wifi/smart/internet device. I had never bothered to download the manufacturer's app because I just wanted to play basic audio. But apparently, even when you manually turn it off with the button, it keeps Bluetooth in listening mod
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This is an example of "sometimes you can be too careful".
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They were half way there. It made no sense to turn around at that point.
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I think it's likely there was some dumbass passenger making an issue of it with the flight crew. With crazy lady yelling at them from one side, and extremely strict company policy regarding bomb threats on the other, I can see why they erred on the side of "keeping my job".
From other comments in this thread, it seems the Bomb Bluetooth speaker is a mass-produced, mass-market device that has probably been on hundreds of other flights without issue. Something different happened on this one.
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I get that there was probably a panicy passenger, but given 4.5 hours to land if they turn around or 4 hours to land if they continue to their destination and nothing but water under them either way, they may have actually prolonged the situation slightly by turning back.
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Or, why would a potential terrorist put a bomb on a plane with an active Bluetooth beacon advertising a bomb, if they don't want it found pre-explosion?
The whole thing is stupendously idiotic. Even if someone built a bomb to put on a plane, they wouldn't use Bluetooth. They'd use WiFi and have it automatically connect to the in-flight WiFi SSID once it's in the air, and then use the pathetic security that allows you to download an app from the app stores to breach the router to get to the Internet.
Nobody
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You are assuming that some garbage off-brand bluetooth speaker allows such things. I mean, these are people so stupid as to make the default device name "Bomb" and not think through it for even half a second as to why they probably shouldn't do that.
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The fact that it's a garbage off-brand speaker makes it more likely that it's possible, because people with valuable brands are the ones who are most likely to want to prevent you from changing it, and also the most likely to actually design their own product internals or have them designed to spec. The cheap brands are most likely to grab a complete PCB off the "shelf", or even more likely than that, just have their crappy brand put on someone else's complete product.
But, and it's a big one, they won't be