Wifi hotspots are the hip new way to shut down airports!The hotspot name - Mobile Detonation Device -- was spotted by a female passenger who saw it on her phone's Wi-Fi menu before the plane left Melbourne airport.
She alerted the crew who notified the pilot and security officials.
Passengers aboard the flight said the pilot asked the person responsible for the Wi-Fi name to come forward but no one did.
The passengers were then asked to leave the plane, which was due to fly to Perth.
Security officials checked the plane but were unable to find a threat and cleared the flight to leave. [...]
An estimated fifty passengers -- about half of those on board -- opted to take a different flight.
I choose to believe that
mostsome of those who got off were thinking "I don't trust an airline/pilot that would turn around for a wifi SID to carry me".Wow. The “threat” is equivalent to someone wearing a t-shirt with “Bomb” on it - but if it's CYBERTECHNOLOGY it's extra scary, i guess.
I hate to say "in all fairness" here, but if you tried to go through TSA wearing a T-shirt with "Bomb" on it, you're probably going to have a bad time.
Or at least a rubber glove-y time.
Happened to me on a flight from SeaTac to Denver on 9/11/2014. They taxied the plane to the far corner of the airport, made us all get off and get on buses, unloaded and had dogs sniff all the luggage. Found nothing, of course, then we all got back on and the plane took off. We were about four hours late, I missed my connection, it was just about the biggest clusterfuck imaginable.
calling that the 'biggest clusterfuck imaginable' on 9/11 takes a certain lack of awareness.
'...just about...'
wow, that would make you just about a self-centred idiot.
Next will be all those hotspots called 'FBI surveillance van'.
If you see something, think long and hard
It didn't actually shut down the airport, but it's one of the most creative ways to get extra elbow room I've seen.
Or just use maths http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-36240523
An ESP8266 WiFi module is about $3.50 on eBay, even in relatively small quantities. Add a battery, enough clock to make sure that a few hundred of these in various different locales all wake up at the same time and broadcast a scary SSID, and a little bit of double-sticky tape to affix them in places not likely to be noticed for a while...
It could be a great public art project or an ARG, too. Imagine suddenly finding a wifi hotspot; when you connect to it, any http request resolves to an onboard server that tells a story.