United in action at San Francisco airport: Getty Images file photo

Caution urged

Wired and Quartz are reporting that a sudden grounding of pending departures by United flights in the US earlier today was the the possible result of a computer hack which generated false flight plans although no explanation as to the cause of the disruption has yet been given by what is one of the world’s largest airlines.

While the delays definitely occurred, the reports themselves urge caution in the absence of the any detailed reason being provided by United, with the hacking explanation coming from the flight deck through pilot announcements.

The most authoritative statement so far was this one published by Quartz, which also had a reporter on board one of the affected flights.

United spokesman Charles Hobart says the airline started to delay flights around 9am Eastern time “to ensure aircraft departed with proper dispatching information.” At 9:25 the FAA issued an air traffic control advisory that all United Flights were grounded.

Hobart could not immediately say how many flights were affected, nor if the airline knew the root cause of the issue.

Despite allusions to earlier claims that MH370 might have had its inflight computer system interfered with, any interference with scheduling or pilot planning information for jets lined up for departure would involve something entirely different to claimed procedures (ridiculed by Airbus and Boeing) through which passengers could alter the paths of jets by manipulating the inflight entertainment systems to gain access to totally different data transfer and input systems used by modern airliners.

That said, the risk that pilots might not recognise spurious flight information in their flight plan software or electronic flight bags is raised by the stories.  The fact that the airline detected and acted on some unexplained data problem right across its extensive US domestic network earlier today is reassuring.