Phone application to track planes could aid terrorists: Expert

LONDON - A mobile phone application worth less than two pounds which precisely tracks aircraft in flight has spurred fears that it could make them terror targets, a security expert was Sunday quoted as saying.

The Plane Finder AR application for the Apple iPhone and Google’s Android allows users to point their phone at the sky and detect the position, height and speed of nearby aircraft, the Daily Mail quoted the expert as saying.

It also shows the airline, flight number, departure point, destination and even the likely course.

The programme, developed by a British firm and sold for just 1.79 pounds in the online Apple store, was labelled an “aid to terrorists” by the security expert amid fears it could be used to target an aircraft with a surface-to-air missile, the Daily Mail said.

The new application works by intercepting the so-called Automatic Dependent Surveillance - broadcasts (ADS-B) transmitted by most passenger aircraft to a new satellite tracking system that supplements or, in some countries, replaces radar.

British and European air traffic control systems have not yet adopted the technology but it is being fitted in all new aircraft, which now constantly broadcast their positions.

After the 9/11 attacks in the US in 2001, a senior Federal Aviation Administration official warned that ADS-B technology could be used by terrorists.

The firm behind the application, Pinkfroot, uses a network of aircraft enthusiasts in Britain and abroad who are equipped with ADS-B receivers costing around 200 pounds to intercept the information from aircraft and send it to a central database.

But Pinkfroot, based in Southsea, Hampshire, has gone a step further, marketing a so-called ‘Augmented Reality’ application because users can point a phone’s camera at the sky and see the precise position of aircraft superimposed on the horizon.

Lee Armstrong, a director of Pinkfroot, had said that it had “crossed our minds” that “a terrorist could use it” and admitted that the firm had tried to reduce the risk.

“It is only real-time to an extent - it is about 30 seconds behind. If someone really wants to do that [shoot down a jet] they could buy their own ADS-B or radar,” he added.