Pilot refuses to fly packed airplane because passenger labelled his personal WIFI ‘Jihadist Cell London 1’

LoganTheBogan · Thu May 25, 2017 10:46 am

So I was reading the news and came across this. I did a quick search on the forum and didn't find anything so I decided to post.

Well as far as I'm concerned the pilot made a good choice but I'm not sure if it was necessary to cancel the flight. Obviously we don't know the full extent of the story but surely more security checks could have been conducted. Either way, a disturbing incident and I hope the culprit is caught. The passenger that found the WiFi deserves an award for bringing this to the crews attention. Good on him!

Because this comes hours after the Manchester attack, I'd like to send my condolences to the families who lost anyone in the terrible event.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3644970/p ... -london-1/

Sorry if it has already been discussed.

oldannyboy · Thu May 25, 2017 11:02 am

Well done. I hope they come down heavy-handed on that retarded moron and let him rot in a Mexican jail.

luftaom · Thu May 25, 2017 11:08 am

It's not even a lock them up offence - let alone lock them up and throw away the key type offence.

JayBCNLON · Thu May 25, 2017 11:19 am

Obviously a case of mass hysteria. And a very inappropriate handling by the cabin crew, as "whispers were spreading around the plane about it".

LoganTheBogan · Thu May 25, 2017 11:25 am

JayBCNLON wrote:
Obviously a case of mass hysteria. And a very inappropriate handling by the cabin crew, as "whispers were spreading around the plane about it".

Yes that was a bit strange considering the main idea is to keep passengers relatively calm under abnormal circumstances. Either way, still not something I would feel comfortable sitting with on a flight.

flipdewaf · Thu May 25, 2017 11:46 am

Meh! its funny, I used to call me wifi hotspot something similar, I used to pass a wifi ssid on the train that said "Secret al qeada training base, (flat 4)". We can have fun, the terrorists can't, that's why we are better.

Fred

djxxa · Thu May 25, 2017 11:57 am

oldannyboy wrote:
Well done. I hope they come down heavy-handed on that retarded moron and let him rot in a Mexican jail.

"..After security officials failed to find the culprit.."
He/she, that is.
" Sniffer dogs and armed police were called to examine the aircraft". to find the Wifi hotspot..

It's mostly the silent people doing real harm, yet they are probably already known by the intelligence services.
So no joking about jihad, eventhough Jihad is not necessarily bad.
If you decide to live in fear and act accordingly, you have let society down.

Virtual737 · Thu May 25, 2017 12:01 pm

Fly the idiot to Manchester. I'll pay. Ask the US to "leak" their identity and then ask them if they still think it was funny.

Calder · Thu May 25, 2017 12:07 pm

Ehh, I think the Captain might have over reacted, but hey, that's just me.

AEROFAN · Thu May 25, 2017 12:10 pm

Calder wrote:
Ehh, I think the Captain might have over reacted, but hey, that's just me.

Virtual737 · Thu May 25, 2017 12:13 pm

Calder wrote:
Ehh, I think the Captain might have over reacted, but hey, that's just me.

I agree, the but idiot with the hotspot is still a TWA coffee.

yowza · Thu May 25, 2017 12:56 pm

You don't joke about bombs or terror at or near airplanes and airports. End of story. Hopefully the pax in question is made to pay for any costs associated with this incident.

My question is why was their hotspot on in the first place...

YOWza

Dominion301 · Thu May 25, 2017 12:57 pm

oldannyboy wrote:
Well done. I hope they come down heavy-handed on that retarded moron and let him rot in a Mexican jail.

Utter nonsense. People come up with silly names for their WiFi all the time...in fact I have a silly one to give a middle finger salute to the oligopoly we have in Canada. My next door neighbour and I split the cost of wifi by using 1 router to serve both of our houses thereby cutting our once outrageous internet bills in half.

Do you honestly think a 'jihadist' would intentionally make themselves known like that?

yowza wrote:
You don't joke about bombs or terror at or near airplanes and airports. End of story. Hopefully the pax in question is made to pay for any costs associated with this incident.

My question is why was their hotspot on in the first place...

YOWza

Or more like how is a personal wifi possibly within range of the gate at the airport? The pilot must have been picking up the network of a company based out of the airport.

djxxa wrote:
oldannyboy wrote:
Well done. I hope they come down heavy-handed on that retarded moron and let him rot in a Mexican jail.

"..After security officials failed to find the culprit.."
He/she, that is.
" Sniffer dogs and armed police were called to examine the aircraft". to find the Wifi hotspot..

It's mostly the silent people doing real harm, yet they are probably already known by the intelligence services.
So no joking about jihad, eventhough Jihad is not necessarily bad.
If you decide to live in fear and act accordingly, you have let society down.

Sniffer dogs, LOL! Mind you this is the Sun we're talking about where minor turbulence "CAUSES TERROR FOR PASSENGERS" on a monthly basis.

par13del · Thu May 25, 2017 1:02 pm

flipdewaf wrote:
Meh! its funny, I used to call me wifi hotspot something similar, I used to pass a wifi ssid on the train that said "Secret al qeada training base, (flat 4)". We can have fun, the terrorists can't, that's why we are better.

Fred

The issue with this line of thinking is that it ignores that the young and easily influenced actually do this type of stuff before doing bad things.

So far in the majority of cases when "bad things" are done, a post mortem audit discovers that all the signs were there, they were just ignored and thought of as someone having fun.

I do not know where the line has to be drawn, but shouting Bomb in a crowded room may be fun but.....in a similar vein, as the story unfolds, the "weird" behaviour of the suspected Manchester bomber was noted but regarded as just that, now imagine what could have been or delayed if someone acted...

b747400erf · Thu May 25, 2017 1:11 pm

Demanding someone get thrown in jail or have mob justice because of a bad joke that is not illegal... these people call themselves civilised and love democracy? I'll bet on political forums they turn around and rant about the "political correctness" that is destroying their country.

oldannyboy · Thu May 25, 2017 1:12 pm

Dominion301 wrote:
oldannyboy wrote:
Well done. I hope they come down heavy-handed on that retarded moron and let him rot in a Mexican jail.

Utter nonsense. People come up with silly names for their WiFi all the time...

Yes, maybe.. Still... That name does at least shout BAD TASTE. You don't mess with those things, not even for a silly joke; for that would be a SILLY joke indeed considering what jihadists do. End of lecture, sorry.

Dominion301 · Thu May 25, 2017 1:12 pm

oldannyboy wrote:
Dominion301 wrote:
oldannyboy wrote:
Well done. I hope they come down heavy-handed on that retarded moron and let him rot in a Mexican jail.

Utter nonsense. People come up with silly names for their WiFi all the time...

Yes, maybe.. Still... That name does at least shout BAD TASTE. You don't mess with those things, not even for a silly joke; for that would be a SILLY joke indeed considering what jihadists do. End of lecture, sorry.

Exactly it's in bad taste. It's not a punishable criminal offence.

Bricktop · Thu May 25, 2017 1:40 pm

oldannyboy wrote:
Dominion301 wrote:
oldannyboy wrote:
Well done. I hope they come down heavy-handed on that retarded moron and let him rot in a Mexican jail.

Utter nonsense. People come up with silly names for their WiFi all the time...

Yes, maybe.. Still... That name does at least shout BAD TASTE. You don't mess with those things, not even for a silly joke; for that would be a SILLY joke indeed considering what jihadists do. End of lecture, sorry.

Agree 100%. And more than a little disrespectful, given the timing.

b747400erf · Thu May 25, 2017 1:48 pm

Bricktop wrote:
oldannyboy wrote:
Dominion301 wrote:

Yes, maybe.. Still... That name does at least shout BAD TASTE. You don't mess with those things, not even for a silly joke; for that would be a SILLY joke indeed considering what jihadists do. End of lecture, sorry.

Agree 100%. And more than a little disrespectful, given the timing.

"Your majesty, the charges are disrespecting and bad taste. I recommend 10 years of solitary confinement"

ASQ400 · Thu May 25, 2017 1:49 pm

djxxa wrote:
oldannyboy wrote:
Well done. I hope they come down heavy-handed on that retarded moron and let him rot in a Mexican jail.

"..After security officials failed to find the culprit.."
He/she, that is.
" Sniffer dogs and armed police were called to examine the aircraft". to find the Wifi hotspot..

It's mostly the silent people doing real harm, yet they are probably already known by the intelligence services.
So no joking about jihad, eventhough Jihad is not necessarily bad.
If you decide to live in fear and act accordingly, you have let society down.

Sniffer dogs?! How dumb are they?!
Jihad is not necessarily bad?! Jihad is holy war, aka killing non-Muslims. Inherently bad.

Bricktop · Thu May 25, 2017 1:52 pm

b747400erf wrote:
Bricktop wrote:
oldannyboy wrote:

Yes, maybe.. Still... That name does at least shout BAD TASTE. You don't mess with those things, not even for a silly joke; for that would be a SILLY joke indeed considering what jihadists do. End of lecture, sorry.

Agree 100%. And more than a little disrespectful, given the timing.

"Your majesty, the charges are disrespecting and bad taste. I recommend 10 years of solitary confinement"

Reductio ad absurdum. But I suppose different people have different tolerances for douchebaggery. Mine's pretty high (I'm kind of a douchebag myself according to my son) but it's below this.

Dominion301 · Thu May 25, 2017 1:52 pm

b747400erf wrote:
Bricktop wrote:
oldannyboy wrote:

Yes, maybe.. Still... That name does at least shout BAD TASTE. You don't mess with those things, not even for a silly joke; for that would be a SILLY joke indeed considering what jihadists do. End of lecture, sorry.

Agree 100%. And more than a little disrespectful, given the timing.

"Your majesty, the charges are disrespecting and bad taste. I recommend 10 years of solitary confinement"

LOL, thank you. ..but for those 10 years you can keep the wifi. :hissyfit:

oldannyboy · Thu May 25, 2017 2:03 pm

Bricktop wrote:
b747400erf wrote:
Bricktop wrote:
Agree 100%. And more than a little disrespectful, given the timing.

"Your majesty, the charges are disrespecting and bad taste. I recommend 10 years of solitary confinement"

Reductio ad absurdum. But I suppose different people have different tolerances for douchebaggery. Mine's pretty high (I'm kind of a douchebag myself according to my son) but it's below this.

fully agree. I'm with you on this.
I may be old fashioned et all, and maybe don't have a high tolerance degree for bad taste, douchebaggery and disrespectful people, but I'll still stick to my beliefs and keep my stand about this incident. The name was at least suspicious, and regardless of what we think the captain decided to act accordingly and treated the issue as a security matter. As a result of "bad taste, douchebaggery, disrespect, stupidity" a lot of people were delayed for many hours and severely inconvenienced. This proves that certain behaviours have no place in today's environment, and especially not around aircrafts and airports. Then, I see that unfortunately we could not "recommend 10 years of solitary confinement" for the smartass in question, but I would hope that at least a good Singapore-style caning would be in order for him...

planesarecool · Thu May 25, 2017 2:25 pm

JayBCNLON wrote:
Obviously a case of mass hysteria. And a very inappropriate handling by the cabin crew, as "whispers were spreading around the plane about it".

Sorry, but where does it say the cabin crew were whispering around the cabin?

but I'm not sure if it was necessary to cancel the flight.

If an incident causes a crew to exceed their duty hours, then it is necessary to cancel the flight. They didn't choose to cancel it, they quite correctly reported something suspicious, and the consequential 'investigation' caused them to go out of hours.

But lets not let facts get in the way of A.net experts.

Confuscius · Thu May 25, 2017 3:28 pm

planesarecool wrote:
they quite correctly reported something suspicious,

Suspicious? Perhaps, but if one look at it logically, terrorist usually claim credit after the fact, not before. They don't want their intentions known. Also, jihadist don't have any sense of humor, their ideology is somewhat like being in a feminist bookstore---there's no humor section.

Fortress11 · Thu May 25, 2017 3:30 pm

planesarecool wrote:
JayBCNLON wrote:
Obviously a case of mass hysteria. And a very inappropriate handling by the cabin crew, as "whispers were spreading around the plane about it".

Sorry, but where does it say the cabin crew were whispering around the cabin?

but I'm not sure if it was necessary to cancel the flight.

If an incident causes a crew to exceed their duty hours, then it is necessary to cancel the flight. They didn't choose to cancel it, they quite correctly reported something suspicious, and the consequential 'investigation' caused them to go out of hours.

But lets not let facts get in the way of A.net experts.

Spot on!

I seldom post here, however this post has me flabbergasted! The level of narrow mindedness and complete ignorance to suggest the captain was overreacting by taking proper security measures is just beyond believable.

This was obviously a joke gone wrong. However, giving the timing of this case, I am failing to see anything remotely funny about it. Based on some member's previous comments this sort of thing classifies as humour and is justified as not living in fear. This isn't about mass hysteria and living in fear, this is about getting passengers and crew safely from A to B, and anything that threatens that must be thoroughly investigated.

Real world pilots don't have the privilege of second chances, something of which obviously hasn't graced the arm chair community yet.

aemoreira1981 · Thu May 25, 2017 3:33 pm

The passenger is a moron and because of it, many got delayed because the crew timed out.

planesarecool · Thu May 25, 2017 3:34 pm

Suspicious? Perhaps, but if one look at it logically, terrorist usually claim credit after the fact, not before. They don't want their intentions known. Also, jihadist don't have any sense of humor, their ideology is somewhat like being in a feminist bookstore---there's no humor section

But one person's sense of humour is different to another's, you can only take these things at face value. If somebody leaves a note in the toilet claiming that there's a bomb on board, is that genuine or is that somebody's 'sense of humour'?

airbazar · Thu May 25, 2017 3:45 pm

Overreacting much? Have we become really that sensitive and that a inappropriately named network name is now a security threat? Geez!
Imagine the disruptions at major airports if all it takes is someone inappropriately naming their personal wifi's. I don't even have to be in a terminal to do that. I can just sit in my car and turn on a bunch of personal wifi hotspots with inappropriate names.The actions of the crew were no less silly then the person who named the wifi hotspot like that, IMO.

anstar · Thu May 25, 2017 3:45 pm

aemoreira1981 wrote:
The passenger is a moron and because of it, many got delayed because the crew timed out.

Exactly. And in this day and age when you fly on aircraft you dont go around do stuff like this - its just asking for trouble.

drdisque · Thu May 25, 2017 3:56 pm

That's why you flip it the other way and make your Wifi "FBI Surveillance Van" or "MI5 Snooping Device" or "Not Scotland Yard"

Confuscius · Thu May 25, 2017 4:13 pm

planesarecool wrote:
But one person's sense of humour is different to another's, you can only take these things at face value. If somebody leaves a note in the toilet claiming that there's a bomb on board, is that genuine or is that somebody's 'sense of humour'?

True, although those notes left in planes are usually hoaxes. The real ones (Pan Am 103, Air India over the ocean and the Russian airliner over Sinai) I don't think had prior warnings.

vhtje · Thu May 25, 2017 4:18 pm

Dominion301 wrote:
Or more like how is a personal wifi possibly within range of the gate at the airport? The pilot must have been picking up the network of a company based out of the airport.

It was, presumably, a personal hotspot coming from a passenger's smartphone, not a nearby WiFi router.

Mine is boringly called "Tim's iPhone". Perhaps I should be creative and call it "Please Upgrade Me" or something.

Flighty · Thu May 25, 2017 4:20 pm

[threeid][/threeid]This is the same as leaving a threatening note in the bathroom.

Entirely acceptable to cancel flight and imprison the criminal. And I don't mean suggest that the subject has the right to be imprisoned without thorough interrogation. Obviously it was a joke, in the same way "I am going to bomb this airplane" is a funny joke. And it is funny, but you have to be interrogated and investigated after you say it, and you will lose your freedom in some ways, perhaps for the remainder of your life. Instant no fly list.

b747400erf · Thu May 25, 2017 4:42 pm

Bricktop wrote:
b747400erf wrote:
Bricktop wrote:
Agree 100%. And more than a little disrespectful, given the timing.

"Your majesty, the charges are disrespecting and bad taste. I recommend 10 years of solitary confinement"

Reductio ad absurdum. But I suppose different people have different tolerances for douchebaggery. Mine's pretty high (I'm kind of a douchebag myself according to my son) but it's below this.

My comment is mocking the people that are demanding this person be locked in prison or tortured by mob justice. Did you just learn a latin phrase at school today and try and play smart?

b747400erf · Thu May 25, 2017 4:43 pm

oldannyboy wrote:
Bricktop wrote:
b747400erf wrote:
"Your majesty, the charges are disrespecting and bad taste. I recommend 10 years of solitary confinement"

Reductio ad absurdum. But I suppose different people have different tolerances for douchebaggery. Mine's pretty high (I'm kind of a douchebag myself according to my son) but it's below this.

fully agree. I'm with you on this.
I may be old fashioned et all, and maybe don't have a high tolerance degree for bad taste, douchebaggery and disrespectful people, but I'll still stick to my beliefs and keep my stand about this incident. The name was at least suspicious, and regardless of what we think the captain decided to act accordingly and treated the issue as a security matter. As a result of "bad taste, douchebaggery, disrespect, stupidity" a lot of people were delayed for many hours and severely inconvenienced. This proves that certain behaviours have no place in today's environment, and especially not around aircrafts and airports. Then, I see that unfortunately we could not "recommend 10 years of solitary confinement" for the smartass in question, but I would hope that at least a good Singapore-style caning would be in order for him...

Punishing people for something that is not a crime, you sound very civilised, like isis.

bennett123 · Thu May 25, 2017 5:00 pm

Frankly, this 'joke' is not funny.

Hope the airline puts him/her on the no fly list.

32andBelow · Thu May 25, 2017 5:25 pm

oldannyboy wrote:
Well done. I hope they come down heavy-handed on that retarded moron and let him rot in a Mexican jail.

For what? It's not a crime. Moron.

F9Animal · Thu May 25, 2017 5:55 pm

JayBCNLON wrote:
Obviously a case of mass hysteria. And a very inappropriate handling by the cabin crew, as "whispers were spreading around the plane about it".

To be fair, this isn't something a crew faces everyday. I don't think there is a standard operating procedure for reactions and concerns like this. Lessons learned perhaps? At the same time, we also have a history of planes being blown out of the sky. If hysteria is what it is, at least the captain decided not to fly.

SFOATLFlyer · Thu May 25, 2017 6:21 pm

oldannyboy wrote:
Well done. I hope they come down heavy-handed on that retarded moron and let him rot in a Mexican jail.

Can society as a whole stop calling people retarded? You do realize we no longer even call mentally or physically challenged people retarded as we once did. Regardless, it's use is offensive.

BoeingGuy · Thu May 25, 2017 6:22 pm

32andBelow wrote:
oldannyboy wrote:
Well done. I hope they come down heavy-handed on that retarded moron and let him rot in a Mexican jail.

For what? It's not a crime. Moron.

No, 32 isn't a moron. The moron who is totally clueless about what is appropriate on an airplane is the moron. You just don't do stuff like that. Anyone with an iota of intelligence should know that. You don't joke about that.

It's like the idiot going through security one day and the TSA asked what was in his bag. His joking reply was, "just plastic explosives."

You just simply do not joke about stuff like this, especially at an airport. How many people died on 9/11? Is that funny?

skipness1E · Thu May 25, 2017 6:29 pm

At the bare minimum, the culprit needs to be identified and spoken to. It's probably nothing, but some smirking Jihadi isn't someone I want next to me on a plane. You don't cry "fire" in a packed building, this is the digital equivalent. You *cannot* simply ignore this once it is brought to your attention.

davies2911 · Thu May 25, 2017 6:40 pm

As I read it the captain asked the person to come forward so that he could be sure it was a joke and get on with the flight as planned. The fact this person was so spineless to not have the balls to own up and instead put an entire flight out does in fact make them a moron deserving of a no fly list.

Andy33 · Thu May 25, 2017 6:43 pm

Point one, if you read the linked article, they can't come down hard on anyone, lock anyone up for 10 years etc etc, because they have no idea who is responsible, and even if they did, it isn't actually against the law anywhere - which leads to point 2:
The linked article is on the website of that exemplar of good taste and accurate journalism the UK's Sun newspaper. There's at least a 50% chance they made it up, as they often do, which leads to point 3:
Surely aviation enthusiasts would have noticed that the photos are not recent, and not taken at Cancun? They're stock photos, and they're obsolete because the "Thomson" titles on the real fleet have been removed over the winter as part of the rebranding to TUI.

richierich · Thu May 25, 2017 6:45 pm

I don't think the captain overreacted. If a guy got on and started muttering "bomb bomb bomb da bomb da bomb bomb", he would be asked to kindly stop or at worst leave the aircraft. It is upsetting to other people. If somebody had an intentionally disturbing Wifi label referencing Jihadist cells, I would think removing them from the aircraft is absolutely the right decision, if not press for criminal mischief charges.

The Sun may use extensive hyperbole to describe the situation, but the original poster was right on.

ALTF4 · Thu May 25, 2017 7:01 pm

So, all of you asking for him to be locked up: how exactly do you plan on figuring out WHO was doing this? The only real way to do it would be to use a device (or software on any normal computer) to find the MAC address broadcasting it, then confiscate everybody's phones and check the MAC address on each of them.

Oh, except you can spoof the MAC address. So the guy could have spoofed another person's MAC address (easily seen in the 802.11 packets) and put this all on some poor chap.

Fortress11 · Thu May 25, 2017 7:06 pm

SFOATLFlyer wrote:
oldannyboy wrote:
Well done. I hope they come down heavy-handed on that retarded moron and let him rot in a Mexican jail.

Can society as a whole stop calling people retarded? You do realize we no longer even call mentally or physically challenged people retarded as we once did. Regardless, it's use is offensive.

Yes, the term is offensive and it shouldn't be thrown around, but there are bigger issues at hand here. Mainly being some idiot making a jihadist joke on an actual aeroplane, on a flight to the UK (terror threat level: critical), hours after an Islamic Fundamentalist killed 22 people.

I'm shocked that some a.nutters still seem to think this kind of thing is funny, when surely it's common sense that you don't do this kind of s**t!

uberflieger · Thu May 25, 2017 7:08 pm

A joke makes people laugh. Nobody was laughing. Many were fearful and everybody inconvenienced NOT because a captain did what he had to do, but somebody not taking responsibility for their insensitive action. :thumbsdown:

32andBelow · Thu May 25, 2017 7:24 pm

BoeingGuy wrote:
32andBelow wrote:
oldannyboy wrote:
Well done. I hope they come down heavy-handed on that retarded moron and let him rot in a Mexican jail.

For what? It's not a crime. Moron.

No, 32 isn't a moron. The moron who is totally clueless about what is appropriate on an airplane is the moron. You just don't do stuff like that. Anyone with an iota of intelligence should know that. You don't joke about that.

It's like the idiot going through security one day and the TSA asked what was in his bag. His joking reply was, "just plastic explosives."

You just simply do not joke about stuff like this, especially at an airport. How many people died on 9/11? Is that funny?

You want to sent people to jail over some dorm room prank they did and they didn't rename it. Get over yourselves.

Dominion301 · Thu May 25, 2017 7:41 pm

drdisque wrote:
That's why you flip it the other way and make your Wifi "FBI Surveillance Van" or "MI5 Snooping Device" or "Not Scotland Yard"

I neighbour of my inlaws has the Canadian equivalent of this. Rather comical...don't worry, they're nowhere near the airport though!

Andy33 wrote:
Point one, if you read the linked article, they can't come down hard on anyone, lock anyone up for 10 years etc etc, because they have no idea who is responsible, and even if they did, it isn't actually against the law anywhere - which leads to point 2:
The linked article is on the website of that exemplar of good taste and accurate journalism the UK's Sun newspaper. There's at least a 50% chance they made it up, as they often do, which leads to point 3:
Surely aviation enthusiasts would have noticed that the photos are not recent, and not taken at Cancun? They're stock photos, and they're obsolete because the "Thomson" titles on the real fleet have been removed over the winter as part of the rebranding to TUI.

Thankfully someone else picked up on the source of this "news" article. The illustrious Sun. I wonder if "The Donald" considers this "news"paper to be "fake news"?

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