Alarming Wi-Fi Hotspot Name Gave A Scare To Passengers On A Plane

With the situation such as it is across the globe, there’s even more cause for airlines and airports to be vigilant about any potential terrorists who might be looking to cause harm to people. This is why security isn’t taken lightly when it comes to air travel these days and nothing is left to chance, because if it was, this alarming Wi-Fi hotspot name wouldn’t have given passengers on a Qantas plane quite a scare.

Qantas flight QF481 was delayed for more than two hours in Australia when a passenger spotted a mobile hotspot with “Mobile Detonation Device” as the name. The crew was immediately alerted yet nobody knew what mobile device had created the hotspot and which device it was linked to.

The captain of the flight was informed who then broadcasted a message to the passengers, the pilot said that unless the device was located the flight would not take off. No one came forward, according to an anonymous passenger who spoke with Yahoo!7, apparently this incident was related to a hotspot that appeared in the in-flight entertainment system.

Since the Wi-Fi covered a fair distance it’s possible that it might be someone in the terminal who had created the hotspot with this rather unorthodox SSID, but then again, people do have a penchant for giving their Wi-Fi networks all sorts of weird names.

Security eventually cleared the flight and it took off some two hours later than it was originally supposed to.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: General
Tags: qantas