This will cause future pranksters to name their BT devices the same and cause the plane to panic.

Arghhh

and he didn't think to turn off his speaker after the flight crew requested all BT devices to be turned off repeatedly?

or was it one of those in-ear headphones that are borderline impossible to turn off when outside of their case?

It was in the luggage compartment. Even if he had thought about it he probably would not.

I wonder if the speaker had built in lithium batteries too.

Devices with built-in batteries are ok for checked bags in the US (though, the temperature swing isn't good for their long term health, and whichever airline you choose may have their own further restriction on that). It's just removable batteries that must be removed.

Man, looking forward to hear the phrase of "out of abundance of caution". What a fucking stupid overdose of caution and CYA.

Would an actual bomber actually name their device "Bomb"? Chances are, not.

Is the broadcast a "bomb threat"? If so, does it disappear if the device is switched off?

And if the continued broadcast is perceived to be an active threat, and it persisted even after they turned around, at what point do you say "Well, we haven't joined MH-17, might as well do another 180 and resume our flight"?

If the device was named "turn around or bomb", I'd be more convinced we have a situation.

God, I hate this world run by 5th graders.

Someone should make a list of all these weird overreactions. Didn't they turn one flight around because a passenger found something scribbled in Arabic script inside the inflight magazine (I think a previous passenger had written out a prayer)? And another one because there was an abandoned mobile phone that had presumably dropped out of someone's pocket?

Do real bombs have bluetooth?

The type of bomb people worry about for airplanes typically are not built to code.

They do need to have some form of dedinator, and tying that detonator to a Bluetooth control seems like a design that someone might come up with.

> They do need to have some form of dedinator

And some dedotaded wam.

> They do need to have some form of dedinator, and tying that detonator to a Bluetooth control seems like a design that someone might come up with.

So much doesn't make sense to me. First, if for whatever reason you decided to blow up an airplane, why would you need to wait for so long, that the plane can turn around and land? Why not blow the airplane as soon as all passengers are on board, or at least when the plane is high enough in the air that when it is blown up, no body can survive the fall? It also doesn't make sense to use a Bluetooth detonator, because Bluetooth only works at short range, i.e. the detonator would have to also be on the same plane as the bomb. If you are ok with blowing yourself up as well, why not directly detonate the bomb without a remote detonator?

Well, if you put the bomb as check-in luggage, it can be up to 50lbs (assuming aḷl the security checks will miss a 50 lbs bomb, but hey, in Trumpistan it's possible). Then using Bluetooth makes sense, although you'd have to test whether the signal goes through all the metal, and what if your luggage is placed way in the back and you're sitting way in the front (book a seat in the middle of the plane I guess).

True, blowing up a plane on the ground would ensure a lot of chaos, the airport would definitely be shut, affecting thousands of flights due to the ripple effect. Some years ago there was a suicide bombing at Brussels airport.

Hmm, looking forward to a visit from the men in black, because discussing about this stuff means we're plotting a terror attack, and "due to an abundance of caution" they have to check whether we're threats.

I mean you could make the argument that a real bomber wouldn’t make a bomb threat either

Yeah this is really dumb. If someone really wanted to cause harm, they would just name their device "April's iPhone" or something. If they really wanted to send a threat, they'd pass a note to a flight attendant or name it something like you said.

I get the "abundance of caution" mentality and it's a big part of why airplanes are so safe. But at some point, pilots _have_ to assume that the rest of the apparatus has done its job. They have to assume that when maintenance clears them, the plane actually works (at least with some degree of trust). And they have to assume that when security lets people on the plane, those people don't have bombs.

That doesn't mean they need to ignore the evidence of their eyes and ears, just that they should apply some base level of reason and logic to the situation.

Yeah, it's all CYA and following procedures, who wants to take responsibility for any decision, "not me, I don't want to get sued and be in debt for 7 generations if I get it wrong"... so the bullshit rises all the way of the chain of idiots until someone thinks "Let's just play it safe and turn around, because if there's an actual bomb onboard, turning around will make it not explode!"

This makes me idly wonder what would happen if a Bluetooth device appeared mid-flight with a title like "Bomb will explode if we do not land at LAX before 3 pm" (on a flight to LAX scheduled to land at 2:30 pm or whatever). The idea is... what if turning around is explicitly given as the actual trigger? Would they still turn around out of an abundance of caution? Kinda like Speed I guess ... gotta go fast to be safe.

That'd be a great way of getting your flight to LAX very very quickly, probably even with military escort. But of course afterwards you'll be stuck at the tarmac while a million police and military surround the plane figuring out what to do.

Don't try this at home, kids, (I mean, in the sky).

What about the airport? Will they evacuate when they detect a Bluetooth called bomb? That will open so many pranks that can be remotely executed and impossible to detect.

While it may or may not be infeasible, it is entirely possible to determine the source of a radio signal. It is also possible to overlay that tech on a camera feed so that you get a composite image showing like, someone standing in the airport & their Bluetooth info above their head.

I would not find it surprising if I learned that a system like this already existed in many airports. I mean now with AI the whole thing could be automated if you don't care about a few egregious errors here and there.