Flight cancelled due to inappropriate WiFi HotSpot

Burnsy2023 said:
Yes, what exactly is the risk? Everyone has gone through security and been searched. Whilst this is in very poor taste, I don't see how this warrants cancellation of a flight.
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Surely the danger is with other passengers acting out rather than with an actual terrorist using his phone as a hotspot?

Pilot probably though a fuss created on the plane mid flight by an emotional passenger over a distasteful joke, could have been avoided if he just asked the passenger to come clean. Obviously it backfired when he informed all the passengers and no one came clean. At that point he committed himself to finding the phone.
 
Burnsy2023 said:
Yes, what exactly is the risk? Everyone has gone through security and been searched. Whilst this is in very poor taste, I don't see how this warrants cancellation of a flight.
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The pilot was more worried about upset passengers than a terrorist risk. What would have happened onboard if somebody discovered the hotspot midair? People are morons, somebody could flip out, find the first brown person on board and start laying into them.
 
Scam said:
The pilot was more worried about upset passengers than a terrorist risk. What would have happened onboard if somebody discovered the hotspot midair? People are morons, somebody could flip out, find the first brown person on board and start laying into them.
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Could even have the bloke own up and say 'chill its a joke', while the other person gets more offended by his calm attitude and it ends up with other passengers taking sides and kicking off.
 
Burnsy2023 said:
Yes, what exactly is the risk? Everyone has gone through security and been searched. Whilst this is in very poor taste, I don't see how this warrants cancellation of a flight.
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yea ok. top marks for idiocy. there's potentially someone onboard a plane who may be part of a terrorist cell. but it's ok he's been searched so no risk, lets take off chaps. :rolleyes:
 
Had something happened, everyone would have lambasted the people in charge. Can't take the risk in the current climate.
 
Scam said:
The pilot was more worried about upset passengers than a terrorist risk. What would have happened onboard if somebody discovered the hotspot midair? People are morons, somebody could flip out, find the first brown person on board and start laying into them.
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That I suppose is a realistic risk. As long as we're honest that the perception is what we're worried about rather than actually having a terrorist as the below suggests.

Thekwango said:
yea ok. top marks for idiocy. there's potentially someone onboard a plane who may be part of a terrorist cell. but it's ok he's been searched so no risk, lets take off chaps. :rolleyes:
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Burnsy2023 said:
The news report doesn't suggest anything changed. If everyone stayed overnight in a hotel and all got back on the next flight, how has any risk been mitigated?
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The "risk" was more that passengers might kick-off midair had it been discovered. Less so a realistic terrorist risk. But having said that the risk of the latter would probably be reduced somewhat by the "terrorist" having to go through security again I guess..
 
I'm getting tired of talking about a worrying lack of common sense in people today but surely the real story is how the Mexican police/security couldn't actually find the culprit and sent them all to a hotel? if it was a genuine terrorist we'd probably be talking about a hotel massacre instead.
 
mmj_uk said:
I'm getting tired of talking about a worrying lack of common sense in people today but surely the real story is how the Mexican police/security couldn't actually find the culprit and sent them all to a hotel? if it was a genuine terrorist we'd probably be talking about a hotel massacre instead.
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Once someone knew what the fuss was about it wouldn't take 10 seconds to change the name with no sign it had ever been anything else - assuming it was even someone on the plane - as above the mobile hotspot on some of my devices is detectable at quite a range.
 
It's 2 taps to get to airplane mode on all phones, who on earth boards a plane and then starts searching for wifi networks anyway?
 
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asim18 said:
It's 2 taps to get to airplane mode on all phones, who on earth boards a plane and then starts searching for wifi networks anyway?
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Maybe just bored and curious? I quite often do a quick search when out and about for a laugh to see what names come up.
 
asim18 said:
It's 2 taps to get to airplane mode on all phones, who on earth boards a plane and then starts searching for wifi networks anyway?
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Lots of flights have wifi (OK probably not Thomson) but it's always worth a look. I didn't realise that a JAL flight had Gogo wifi until I had a look, it meant I was able to keep up with F1 and football and speak to people on WhatsApp for the 10 hours from Tokyo. :)

And I'm happy the pilot did this by the way, now nobody is going to do this again unless they want a massive delay as well as risk of prosecution. I'm surprised at burnsy's stance, surely policing is more about preventing repeat situations on top of anything else.
 
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