In a shocking incident in the U.S., a computer security expert hacked into a plane’s in-flight entertainment system and made the jet briefly fly sideways by ordering one of the engines to go into climb mode.
Chris Roberts of ‘One World Labs’ in Denver was flying on the plane at the time it turned sideways, according to an FBI search warrant.
The warrant was first reported on Friday by news network APTN, a Canadian News Service.
Roberts told the FBI that he had hacked into planes “15 to 20 times,” according to court documents first made public last week.
The warrant describes how Roberts would wiggle and squeeze the Seat Electronic Box under his seat, which connected to the plane’s IFE.
He would then connect a cable to the box and connect it to his computer. From there, Roberts was able to hack into the plane’s IFE system using default IDs and passwords.
