United Airlines 767 returns to Newark after Bluetooth name sparks alert

alfiedotwtf

> "Free Palestine, F Zionists" Does the FBI usually get involved when someone says these words in public in the US?

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?

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

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.

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/57lugEMhxl All the redditors on board: https://www.reddit.com/r/unitedairlines/s/Fh2KoqG4SY A passenger with a hilariously illtimed username: https://www.reddit.com/r/unitedairlines/s/W86tRI6ZVf

wartywhoa23

Oh gosh, sure, terrorists always name their devices "bomb" in the open.

sammy2255

IM THE BOMB AND ABOUT TO BLOW UPPPPPPPP

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?

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?

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.

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.

opengrass

Why would it land in New York instead of St John?

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...

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.

richstokes

Andddd now everyone knows that an arbitrary text string in a device hostname is enough to ground a flight.

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?

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.

ChrisArchitect

Earlier: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48342158

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/57lugEMhxl I 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.

RagnarD

I hope somebody follows up to ensure that the kid isn't being punished for a completely unpredictable event involving a commercial device.