In what may be the first Bluetooth threat to an aircraft, a United Airlines flight had to turn back to Newark last Saturday when a 16-year-old passenger allegedly named his device BOMB. The unmentionable word showed up as a discoverable device on other devices in the cabin and the annoyed captain delivered a public admonition. “We’re going to be returning back to Newark because we have one passenger that seemed to be making a funny joke that isn’t so funny, and it’s going to be compromising the safety of this flight,” the captain said over the PA. Passengers were ordered to turn off all Bluetooth devices, but two remained on.
The Boeing 767 crew squawked 7700 and turned around about 90 minutes into the flight and landed back in Newark just after 10 p.m. Federal officers came aboard and passengers were ordered to ramp with only their passports while the plane was searched. In that process they apparently identified their prankster and likely his horrified parents. The flight took off again about 2 a.m. The fate of the teen has not been publicly released.
Pathetic.
What we have become…
Our insatiable desire to be constantly connected has given us a world where people surreptitiously critique the pastor in church, judge performances at plays and concerts, and gossip at lectures and meetings, all in silence and often under the myth of anonymity. No doubt these parents are horrified, as should be anyone whose kid has a phone which, these days, is nearly all of them.
This doesn’t rise to the stupidity of keeping a loaded gun in your beside table, but being “Shocked! Shocked!” after the fact, is a poor substitute for taking the phone and giving the kid a book to read on the flight.
I would imagine that the parents did not know what their child had done. I would also bet the parents will place some new restrictions on the child’s IT use. The real question, that cannot be answered here, did the child and the parents learn anything?
Well, when the parents of this immature teenager gets the bill from the airline and public safety individuals involved in the aircraft turn around and subsequently the search made, and no doubt named in lawsuits by fellow passengers–they will get the message. I was in airline employment as a crewmember and also worked 40 years as an Officer/Firefighter and we can bill for such intentional criminal/negligent actions.
I’m sure it’s going to hurt! And rightly so!
That’s gonna end up costing the family +/- the price of one college education.
I hope I’m not the only one who thinks this was a gross over-reaction. I have seen wi-fi SSIDs in my neighborhood and around town such as ICE-SWAT, CIA, Your_Mamma, many many more. Sometimes its a Hotspot. I am guessing that is what this was. Jet 4 letters in a Hotspot label and you want to criminalize it? Over reaction due to hysteria. Indeed, what have we become.