An American Airlines flight from Los Angeles International Airport to London was grounded on Sunday for four hours. While that might sound strange enough, the reason for the delay was a rather stupid prank: the name of a Wi-Fi hotspot, as reported by ABC 7.
While the plane was taxiing to the runway, a passenger noticed that there was a hotspot named “Al-Quida Free Terror Network” and alerted a flight attendant. Soon after, Flight 136 was brought back to its departing gate, and there it, as well as all the passengers, stayed for four hours while the airline investigated the issue.
Travelers were initially told that the delay was due to a maintenance issue, but they soon learned that the issue was someone attempting, in vain, to be funny. Even though the airport said no further action would be taken, authorities are now involved and are presumably trying to figure out who came up with the Wi-Fi name.
Needless to say, it was not a fun day for anyone flying to London that day.
Editors' Recommendations
- Wi-Fi not working? How to fix the most common problems
- What are portable Wi-Fi hotspots, and how do they work?
- MediaTek just made Wi-Fi 7 a lot more exciting
- How to quickly share Wi-Fi settings in Android
- 5G vs. Wi-Fi: How they’re different and why you’ll need both