Hacker Allegedly Compromised Commercial Airliners In-Flight , Made The Plane Climb and Fly Sideways

A computer expert allegedly hacked into the systems of commercial airliners while in-flight to make them climb and even fly sideways.

Chris Roberts, the founder of One World Labs, a computer security company in Denver was on board a commercial flight as it turned sideways as stated in the FBI search warrant that was filed in April, according to USA Today.

After the FBI questioned and searched Roberts, his equipment included 2 laptop computers, USB sticks and hard drivers were confiscated.

According to the Business Insider, the warrant also explained how Roberts said he allegedly overtook the plane's in-flight entertainment system.

"He compromised the IFE systems approximately 15 to 20 times during the time period 2011 through 2014," the warrant said."Each of the compromises occurred on airplanes equipped with IFE systems with video monitors installed in the passenger seats."

Roberts explained that in order to get to the IFE systems, he used the Seat Electronic Box found under the passenger seats. He would use an Ethernet cable to connect his laptop to the IFE system.

"He stated that he then overwrote code on the airplane's Thrust Management Computer while aboard a flight ... [and] successfully commanded the system he had access to the issue the 'CLB' or climb command," the warrant stated.

Because of this event, it "caused one of the airplane engines to climb resulting in a lateral or sideways movement of the plane."

Meanwhile, Alex Stamos the Chief Information Security Officer of Yahoo reacted with a tweet regarding the incident:

"You cannot promote the (true) idea that security research benefits humanity while defending research that endangered hundreds of innocents."

Roberts told Wired, however, that his discussion with the FBI and the document was 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," Roberts said. "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."

According to the UK Daily Mail, Roberts wasn't allowed to board a plane from his Colorado hometown to San Francisco for a conference.

"Given Mr. Roberts' claims regarding manipulating aircraft systems, we've decided it's in the best interest of our customers and crew members that he not be allowed to fly United," Rahsaan Johnson, the airline spokesman said.

"However, we are confident our flight control systems could not be accessed through techniques he described,' he added.

When asked regarding Roberts boarding the airlines he represents, Johnson said that Roberts claimed to have "tampered with aircraft equipment," and that these were 'a violation of United policy and something customers and crews shouldn't have to deal with." He also said that Roberts was notified hours before his flight that he wasn't allowed to board United airlines.