Perhaps one of the most bizarre incidents since I very first started working at Stansted Airport occured the other day. It was bizarre for a number of reasons. Firstly that it was ALLOWED to occur in a British Airport, which I find both baffling and concerning in the current climate of take-no-chances security - which is never more stringently observed than in an airport. And secondly, that once the perpetrators had succeeded in getting as far as they did, the enormous waste of a golden and once in a lifetime opportunity to either create anarchy or make a bold and memorable statement.
Allow me to explain: I was sat on check-in happily checking-in (this is perhaps an exaggeration given the particular airline I was working on behalf of at the time, but I digress) when the usual 'bing bong' of the airport tannoy system kicked in. Now, when one hears such tannoys as often as one does during the course of a day at the airport, one tends to be completely imune to them unless they are in some way out of the ordinary. This particular tannoy announcement was exactly that. Instead of the crystal clear, concise and beautifully announciated barrage of information one is normally treated to, the terminal building was filled with an unidentifiable collection of strange, muffled sounds. My initial thought was purely and simply that Mr Airport Tannoy Man had accidentally leaned on his 'make announcement' button, in much the same way as a mobile phone can accidentally dial someone from within one's pocket, thus treating the recipient of the call to some white noise and if they are really lucky, the rhythmic swishing of walking. However, ten minutes later there was a further 'bing bong'. This time, after the previous attempt, the bing and the bong caught my attention; I was intrigued. And what was announced intrigued me even more:
'Stansted Airport would like to apologise for the unscheduled annoucement a few moments ago, and for any offence it caused. The persons responsible for this have now been detained'.
This, of course, invoked a wave of curiousity, there was a palpable buzz around the particular zone of airport we were working in (apparently a zone with very poor loudspeakers) from passengers and staff alike - what on earth had happened, who were the persons responsible, what had been said that was so offensive?? We did not have to wait long for answers. Having closed check in, my colleagues and I headed back towards our central office at the other end of the (long) terminal building. We noticed a hub of activity in one particular area. As is human nature, we slowed down to have a look, in a similar way to how drivers do when there is an interesting looking car accident on the other side of the road (we really are a voyeuristic bunch). It was difficult to make out exactly what was happening, but there were certainly an awful lot of police officers and airport security staff involved. Finally, we came across someone in the know, one of our supervisors had both heard what was initially said on the announcement, and heard the full story through her contacts within the higher echelons of airport staff.
The story was this: using the public computers in the terminal building, a group of young men had somehow managed to hack into the airport tannoy frequency and using their own microphone had been able to make their own announcement. It had not taken long for the origins of the announcement to be traced, and so the perpetrators found, questionned, and presumably arrested. Now as I said, I have two concerns with this incident, coming from two entirely different perspectives. To me it is incredibly worrying the ease with which they were able to infiltrate the system. If it was that simple for them to hack into that particular broadcasting frequency in an airport, would it be just as easy to do the same with something far more potentially dangerous, such as the control tower? It doesn't require much imagination to consider the possible havoc and danger that could be caused by such an infiltration. Even the airport tannoy system in itself COULD have been a very, very dangerous tool to incite mass panic, had the people responsible been more malicious in their intent.
What was actually said over the system, although incredibly muffled was nothing more than crude and childish, along the lines of 'If you want sex come to the toilets' . Which brings me to my second point, one which I make from the perspective of the hackers. The hard work had been done. The hack was successful, they were 'in'. I cannot for the life of me comprehend why, when they had worked themselves such a fantastic forum for mass publicity, they wasted it by giggling like children. These people were obviously intelligent enough to hack what one would perceive to be a secure system. They could have said quite literally anything. Now I am by no means condoning what was essentially a criminal act, although I do have a certain admiration for the ingenuinity and obvious know how of the men responsible; indeed it is fortunate to say the least that these people were NOT malicious, else we could have ended up with a full scale evacuation on our hands and mass panic. However, I do believe that if something is worth getting arrested for, its worth getting arrested for properly! A political point, declaration of love, religious preaching, advertising or self publication. Just a few ideas that come to mind for what could have been said. Of course, there is a possibility that I do these men a disservice. Perhaps the aim of the game was never about what they would say, it was the thrill of knowing they COULD. Either way... 'If you want sex come to the toilets' just doesn't do the crime justice - what a waste!
In any case, it was one of the more interesting episodes. Sadly, bing and bong have now reverted back to introducing Airport Tannoy Man as he informs me that Ryanair's latest flight is delayed.
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