Naked Science Forum
General Discussion & Feedback => Just Chat! => Topic started by: Pseudoscience-is-malarkey on 24/01/2019 00:26:42
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Can a terrorist organization possibly hack into an airport's air traffic control systems, deactivating the runway lights and removing all communication they have with their birds, leaving them powerless to land any of them? Obviously if this task is indeed doable, it would have to take place after the sun hits the hay and would be impossible for them to have this control for more than a few hours, but it could be enough time to cause more deaths than 9/11 and 7/7 combined, especially if the airport's traffic is on the scale of Washington Dulles or London Heathrow.
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I do not see any need for runway light to be controlled by a hackable computer why not a few manually thrown switches. can we not have anything these days that is not computer controlled.
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I think so but it relies on the authorities and enforcement being on their side, doing nothing and capitulationg too easily. But if there where a maveric New York cop comping to meet his wife on one of the planes it may spell trouble.
Realistically though the corruption would be seen, the airport lights would have a rerouted power supply pretty easy. The radio frequences could be scanned and any encriptions would be sourced from the manufacturer specific to each plane, but more likely other airports/flight controlers could contact the plane, and just divert it. Pilot would contact traffic control and ask for a diversion well in advance of no fuel.
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After a very short time the pilots would go somewhere else and, I'm fairly sure, they would warn eachother by direct radio message (if not by passenger's mobile phones)
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I think so but it relies on the authorities and enforcement being on their side, doing nothing and capitulating too easily. But if there where a maverick New York cop comping to meet his wife on one of the planes it may spell trouble.
Realistically though the corruption would be seen, the airport lights would have a rerouted power supply pretty easy. The radio frequencies could be scanned and any encryption would be sourced from the manufacturer specific to each plane, but more likely other airports/flight controllers could contact the plane, and just divert it. Pilot would contact traffic control and ask for a diversion well in advance of no fuel.
I was really hoping no one would catch on to the fact that that scenario is the plot of Die Hard. But after noticing you spelled six words wrong in your comment (I corrected those words in my quotation of you above) I started feeling better about myself again.
Also... John McClain is an LA cop in the first two films. He becomes a New York cop in the 3rd installment.
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I think so but it relies on the authorities and enforcement being on their side, doing nothing and capitulating too easily. But if there where a maverick New York cop comping to meet his wife on one of the planes it may spell trouble.
Realistically though the corruption would be seen, the airport lights would have a rerouted power supply pretty easy. The radio frequencies could be scanned and any encryption would be sourced from the manufacturer specific to each plane, but more likely other airports/flight controllers could contact the plane, and just divert it. Pilot would contact traffic control and ask for a diversion well in advance of no fuel.
I was really hoping no one would catch on to the fact that that scenario is the plot of Die Hard. But after noticing you spelled six words wrong in your comment (I corrected those words in my quotation of you above) I started feeling better about myself again.
Also... John McClain is an LA cop in the first two films. He becomes a New York cop in the 3rd installment.
Are you thinking of Eddie Murphy in Beverly hills cop ?
Also could you highlight the mistakes in red, as you have missed "comping" in your correction.