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Man says he hacked into plane, took control of engines

by David McCabe - 05/16/15 6:09 PM ET

A security researcher told the FBI he had hacked into a plane’s engine system through its in-flight entertainment system and briefly taken control, according to a document filed by federal authorities in April.

In an application for a search warrant, the FBI alleges Chris Roberts told agents that he had once hacked into an airplane’s system and ultimately accessed the computer system that controls the plane’s engines and thrust.

{mosads}They say he claimed to have issued a climb command to one of the engines, causing the plane to lilt sideways.

They also say he admitted to hacking into in-flight entertainment systems on other occasions through a small box of electronics under seats on the plane.

A Canadian news website first wrote about the document.

Roberts is a security researcher who for years has claimed there are vulnerabilities in in-flight entertainment systems, according to WIRED. He met with the FBI to brief them on his research earlier this year.

But a tweet he sent in April suggesting he would hack into the network of his plane again attracted the attention of the FBI, who are seeking the search warrant so they can perform forensic analysis on his personal electronics.

Roberts told WIRED he felt the statements he had made to investigators were taken out of context.

“That paragraph that’s in there is one paragraph out of a lot of discussions, so there is context that is obviously missing which obviously I can’t say anything about,” he told the magazine.

“It would appear from what I’ve seen that the federal guys took one paragraph out of a lot of discussions and a lot of meetings and notes and just chose that one as opposed to plenty of others.”

The application for the warrant was filed two days after Roberts was interrogated about his tweet.

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