American Airlines flight 1847 from San Juan to Dallas—fort Worth was forced to turn around 30 minutes after departure on Thursday when a passenger misinterpreted a condolence text received by a seatmate. The message read “R.I.P.” Rest in peace was interpreted as a possible bomb threat.

• The flight departed from San Juan’s Luis Muñoz Marín Airport carrying 193 people. A passenger was snooping over the shoulder of their seat opponent and noticed the text – and reported it to a flight attendant.
• The aircraft returned to airport. TSA boarded, inspected the plane, and interviewed the passenger. There was no threat found. Investigators learned the recipient had suffered a family death the day before and was heading home for the funeral, and the flight was cleared to depart again about three and a half hours late.

You’re told ‘see something, say something’ but Bruce Schneier’s adage that ‘when you have amateurs doing security, you get amateur security’ applies.

Maybe don’t look at other peoples’ phones? One lesson I learned intuitively growing up in New York is that when you’re surrounded by masses of people, privacy comes from ignoring everyone around you. That’s a best practice for air travel.

Earlier this year an American Airlines flight was delayed four hours because of a passenger’s wifi network name, “I Have A Bomb.” People who actually have bombs don’t announce it via their wifi network name.

If you live in an apartment or condo building, odds on you see several names meant to be clever. Most of them aren’t.

If you’re going to choose condogirl you might as well leave the default set to ATT2sXj6Fk-5g.

And I guess it’s fine to name your home wifi Al Qaeda Sleeper Cell or Russian FSB Surveillance Van but using that name on a plane causes problems.

But go figure that you can’t text condolence messages to passengers anymore when they lose a loved one.