Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

United Airlines 767 returns to Newark after Bluetooth name sparks alert

simpleflying.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

331–340 of 1001 posts

Re: United Airlines 767 returns to Newark after Bluetooth name sparks alert

#331

Post by jMyles »

thrownthatway wrote: post #282
LoganDark wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I know for certain if you change the setting General > About > Name in an iPhone it changes what everyone sees when they look at their list of available Bluetooth devices. > I assume other Bluetooth devices are the same, no? No. The iPhone is allowing you to configure what name it broadcasts. But you cannot just tell another device what to broadcast. That device must have its own mechanism for changing its name. Fo…

> Third-party peripherals usually do not have this functionality. What do you mean by ”usually” here? I’m certain all the regular name brands, eg JBL Bose Sonos B&O etc enable the device itself to be configured with a user set name via their app. I’m certain because I’ve used them and done so.

I've never had a bose device that allowed this - is that new? And for JBL, it's only the latest gen (or maybe starting with gen 3?) that started allowing it.

As for other brands I own: Jlab, jawbone, pyle, and anker don't seem to have any such functionality that I can see.

So it's far from ubiquitous, sufficiently so that it makes no sense to presume that a bluetooth name is a message from a passenger and can be understood to have any intended meaning.

Re: United Airlines 767 returns to Newark after Bluetooth name sparks alert

#332

Post by rubatuga »

userbinator wrote: post #310
Stratoscope wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it was probably in checked luggage Which would violate FAA regulations if it was powered on (as it obviously was): "When portable electronic devices powered by lithium batteries are in checked baggage, they must be completely powered off and protected to prevent unintentional activation or damage." https://www.faa.gov/hazmat/packsafe/portable-electronic-devi...

It might've been off when packed, but all the vibration turned it on at some point.

[flagged]

Re: United Airlines 767 returns to Newark after Bluetooth name sparks alert

#333

Post by [deleted] »

Eridrus wrote: post #189
neilv wrote: post #178

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 extr…

This is trying to sanewash totally insane levels of risk aversion. Do you think terrorists are really going to name their Bluetooth speaker "bomb"? Do you think this behaviour has any meaningful true positives? This is the kind of brainworms thinking that has people throwing our their 150ml liquids out at TSA and taking their shoes off.

[deleted]

Re: United Airlines 767 returns to Newark after Bluetooth name sparks alert

#334

Post by jim33442 »

lostlogin wrote: post #138
tjpnz wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Can you? ‘I support Palestinian Action’ is all I can think of and it’s the same length.

Does that actually get you arrested, or do you have to go to a Palestinian Action protest? Not that there's that big of a difference.

Re: United Airlines 767 returns to Newark after Bluetooth name sparks alert

#335

Post by pastor_williams »

866-RON-0-FEZ wrote: post #235
HNisCIS wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> Soooo it's fine to name all your variables slurs then? Except that never happened. It's fantasy. What did happen was words like "black hat" and "white hat" got re-classified as hateful language. I'm actually surprised the conference was spared by the mob.

At my work at also got rid of build cop because that was considered offensive.

Re: United Airlines 767 returns to Newark after Bluetooth name sparks alert

#336

Post by [deleted] »

thrownthatway wrote: post #282
LoganDark wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I know for certain if you change the setting General > About > Name in an iPhone it changes what everyone sees when they look at their list of available Bluetooth devices. > I assume other Bluetooth devices are the same, no? No. The iPhone is allowing you to configure what name it broadcasts. But you cannot just tell another device what to broadcast. That device must have its own mechanism for changing its name. Fo…

> Third-party peripherals usually do not have this functionality. What do you mean by ”usually” here? I’m certain all the regular name brands, eg JBL Bose Sonos B&O etc enable the device itself to be configured with a user set name via their app. I’m certain because I’ve used them and done so.

[deleted]

Re: United Airlines 767 returns to Newark after Bluetooth name sparks alert

#337

Post by charcircuit »

tiffanyh wrote: post #326

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)

The chances of potentially losing lives were not high in this case of an unusual Bluetooth device name.

Re: United Airlines 767 returns to Newark after Bluetooth name sparks alert

#338

Post by georgemcbay »

neilv wrote: post #178

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 extr…

I can appreciate the concern over these words among the flight staff.

But at the same time in the wake of these type of incidents and seeing how they are responded to, if I were a group that wanted to harm economic interests I'd invest in malware that I'd spend years silently spreading and then at some future date flip to a mode where infected devices detect when they are likely to be in-flight via GPS data and have them randomly change wifi hotspot and bluetooth identifiers to 'bomb' to inflict chaos and economic damage across a system that is apparently incapable of dealing with that.

I don't blame people who are responsible for the lives of others for overreacting in a one-off situation, but such overreaction could be weaponized.

Re: United Airlines 767 returns to Newark after Bluetooth name sparks alert

#339

Post by addandsubtract »

hectormalot wrote: post #264
neilv wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. Are super-organized, highly-capable, fully-sane terrorists the only threat? Or does the threat model include mentally-ill / personality disorder people, who might make mistakes, or taunt those whose job it is to stop them? Or include people of either kind, who create diversions? Or include people who make a statement in an unexpected way? 2. Did the captain, flight control, and everyone else who needed to decide,…

The thing that surprises me is they flew back to Newark for almost 90 minutes. It doesn't make sense to me. (1) Either you believe the threat is credible and you put it down at the nearest suitable airport in the least amount of time. Say Sydney at about 200km to your west, or FSP at 150km in the direction you're going (not a great fit, but doable). In both cases you could probably land within 20 minutes, a bit more…

If someone is planning on triggering a bomb on a plane, and they haven't done so, you can assume they have a target you haven't reached yet. So going back is not only the safe option, but also the location the people & plane came from.

Re: United Airlines 767 returns to Newark after Bluetooth name sparks alert

#340

Post by rbanffy »

Eridrus wrote: post #189
neilv wrote: post #178

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 extr…

This is trying to sanewash totally insane levels of risk aversion. Do you think terrorists are really going to name their Bluetooth speaker "bomb"? Do you think this behaviour has any meaningful true positives? This is the kind of brainworms thinking that has people throwing our their 150ml liquids out at TSA and taking their shoes off.

> Do you think terrorists are really going to name their Bluetooth speaker "bomb"?

If they knew it was a BT speaker, they wouldn’t have returned.

OTOH, who would name a bomb with a Bluetooth transceiver in a way that advertises its function. I’d use something like “pacemaker” so that nobody would ask me to turn it off.

Post reply on HN