American Airlines has denied that bizarre non-stop moaning and grunting sounds coming from its intercom during flights were caused by the system being hacked.
Viral video posted on social media by film producer Emerson Collins captured the strange noises on a 6 September flight from Los Angeles to Dallas.
In his video, Mr Collins suggests that someone may have broken into the intercom system, and a flight attendant even apologised to customers.
“Please be patient with us, we know it’s a very odd anomaly, and none of us are enjoying it, so we do appreciate your attention just for a few more moments until we figure out how to turn it off,” the flight attendant can be heard saying over the PA system.
Another Twitter user claimed that he and his wife had experienced a similar phenomenon on an AA flight in July.
“To be clear, it was just sounds like the moans and groans of someone in extreme pain. The crew said that it had happened before, and had no explanation.”
Now American Airlines says it has investigated the incident and says that as the plane’s PA system is not connected to the internet it would not have been hacked.
Instead, they blame a much more mundane malfunction.
“The PA systems onboard our aircraft are hardwired and there is no external access,” the company said in a statement.
“Following the initial report, our maintenance team thoroughly inspected the aircraft and the PA system and determined the sounds were caused by a mechanical issue with the PA amplifier, which raises the volume of the PA system when the engines are running.”
