Comment by CGMthrowaway

Comment by CGMthrowaway 4 days ago

5 replies

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No real 747 flew this. It was a prank using impossible flight data via ADS-B spoofing. Ground-based “software-defined radios” (SDRs) broadcast fake transponder signals to trick ADS-B Exchange. This works because both the ADS-B & AIS systems use unencrypted, unauthenticated data.

joecool1029 4 days ago

It was sent to ADSBexchange's API, not over RF. No laws were broken.

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  • nshireman 4 days ago

    Yep, as evidenced by the "Source:Other" tag on ADSBExchange. Signals actually sent over the air would show ADS-B, TIS-B, etc, as the data source.

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    • Scoundreller 4 days ago

      It’s only “other” at the very last point. Go earlier in the track and it shows as “ADS-B”, but every historical real flight in this plane is MLAT (it doesn’t broadcast its precise position but it can be inferred from receivers)

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    • jjwiseman 4 days ago

      That's not true. And if you click almost anywhere else on the spoofed track it will show as Source: ADS-B.

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