Policy & Regulation
Delta probes fake in-flight Wi-Fi network set up mid-flight
Delta is investigating after a passenger allegedly created a fake Wi-Fi network mimicking the plane's legitimate network on a flight from Las Vegas to Atlanta, prompting pilots to alert air traffic control.
An unidentified passenger allegedly created a fake Wi-Fi network on a Delta flight from Las Vegas to Atlanta on Monday, prompting pilots to alert air traffic control, according to the airline and public broadcasts from the plane. “[The] safety of flight was never in question and no aircraft operating systems were affected,” Delta spokesperson Morgan Durrant told TechCrunch, adding that the in-flight network itself was not compromised. “We are fully investigating to gather a complete set of facts, which will take time. We will partner with federal law enforcement and aviation regulators to ensure the incident is thoroughly investigated,” the spokesperson said.
The flight crew turned off the aircraft’s legitimate Wi-Fi network for around 30 minutes because of the incident. Once the crew became aware of the fake network, the pilots sent two messages mid-flight to air traffic control, saying a passenger “created a scam Wi-Fi” designed to impersonate the plane’s legitimate wireless network. The pilots said they did not have further information, but noted that some of the passengers on board had come from cybersecurity conferences held in Las Vegas the previous week.
At this point, it’s unclear what the passenger or passengers were doing. It’s easy to set up a fake or malicious Wi-Fi network using commercially available tools like a Wi-Fi Pineapple, a hardware device designed for spoofing real-world networks — sold both to professional security testers auditing companies and to hobbyists learning how to hack.
The Atlanta Police Department referred questions to federal authorities. FAA spokesperson Steve Kulm said the agency had not received a report about the incident, and the FBI did not immediately respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.
Why it matters
A fake in-flight Wi-Fi network built with off-the-shelf hardware shows how little it now takes to spoof a plane’s onboard systems well enough to alarm a flight crew — even without any confirmed intrusion.