Man Hacked Into a Plane’s Engines While It Was In Flight

A security researcher ‘took over’ a plane’s engines in flight by hacking into the seat-back entertainment system, FBI agents have claimed.

Security expert Chris Roberts is said to have used weaknesses in the electronic entertainment systems on Boeing and Airbus planes to hack into systems on passenger planes on 20 occasions between 2011 and 2014.

Roberts’ exploits came to light when he Tweeted from an aircraft that he had access to control systems - including the one which circulated oxygen through the aircraft.

He was immediately removed from the plane and banned from United for life.

When questioned by the FBI, Roberts reportedly said that the weaknesses in aircraft systems - known as ‘exploits’, in hacker terms - allowed him access to dozens of systems, including control systems which can change a plane’s direction.

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FBI agent Mike Hurley wrote, ‘He stated that he successfully commanded the system he had accessed to issue the ‘CLB’ or climb command.’

‘He stated that he thereby caused one of the airplane engines to climb resulting in a lateral or sideways movement of the plane during one of these flights.’

FBI agents say that the hacks seemed to involve running an Ethernet cable from Roberts’ MacBook into the inflight entertainment system.

Roberts could then take control of cockpit systems - including, it is claimed, the controls of the plane.