Several airports had their public address systems hacked by Turkish cybercriminals supporting Hamas and insulting Donald Trump on Tuesday evening, including Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and Kelowna, British Columbia. Messages of “Free Palestine” were played to airline passengers.
A computer-generated voice listed hackers claiming responsibility, and added:
[Expletive] Netanyahu and Trump…Turkish hackey cyber Islam was here? Free, free Palestine. Free, free Palestine.
According to Harrisburg airport,
[Tuesday] evening, an unauthorized user gained access to the airport PA system and played an unauthorized recorded message. The message was political in nature and did not contain any threats against the airport, our tenants, airlines, or passengers. The PA system was shut off, and the incident is under investigation by police. We should not comment on the information in the message.
During this incident, one flight was boarding. Out of an abundance of caution, the aircraft was searched. No security issues were found, and the flight departed safely.
Credit: Harrisburg International Airport
There’s a tradition, of course, of taking over announcements for political purposes. A passenger at Chicago O’Hare had American Airlines page “Let’s Go Brandon” back in 2021. And Bart Simpson has been doing it for 30 years.
Someone just paged Let's Go Brandon at Chicago O'Hare. pic.twitter.com/BrUK2TuzJF
— Brick Suit (@Brick_Suit) October 8, 2021
As far as security compromises go, the Turkish airport hack is pretty modest. Nonetheless, a Delta flight that was boarding at the time was delayed for a security search before being cleared to depart.
Delta at Harrisburg International Airport, credit: HIA
A similar hack took place at the Kelowna Airport in British Columbia, Canada.
does anyone know wtf happened at YLW tonight??
byu/thebigsad_jpg inkelowna
CANADIAN AIRPORT SECURITY FAILURE — PA SYSTEM HACKED WITH НAMAS MESSAGING
Listen to Kelowna Airport loudspeakers play Arabic chants with Нamas propaganda.
Security in Canada is a joke.
But I'm glad we're all limited to travel-sized bottles of liquids so we can stay safe! pic.twitter.com/H7VcVOBNvt
— dahlia kurtz ✡︎ דליה קורץ (@DahliaKurtz) October 15, 2025
It’s difficult to say how much Hamas represents the people, although we know that ordinary Gazans were guarding hostages. There hasn’t been an election permitted in twenty years (and Hamas won). Hamas has been systematically killing Palestinian opposition within Gaza since Israel’s pull out. Maybe all that will be left will be Hamas supporters? Or htose too afraid to speak up. And as Hamas re-assets itself into aid distribution, they’ll be holding food over the heads of the Palestinian people.
The Victoria, British Columbia airport experienced a similar hack which they attributed to “cloud-based software issue.”
Protestations by the hackers that Hamas won notwithstanding, the capabilities of Hezollah and the Houthis have been decapitated. Iran has been weakened and humiliated. Israel may be safer than it has ever been, although the world has no shortage of people who will martyr themselves to blow up Israeli schoolchildren.
Hamas hasn’t fulfilled its obligations yet under the first stage of the peace agreement – returning the bodies of hostages they killed. But they’re back in power and they show no signs of a willingness to abdicate. There won’t be peace with a group dedicated to the destruction of Israel on its border. Whether they have any strength, though, depends on whether they’ve lost the support of Egypt, Turkey, and Qatar.
Israel will exist. The question for Palestinians is whether they are willing to exist alongside Israel? From rejecting two states in 1947 and going to war instead, to adopting the position of no “peace with Israel, no negotiations, no recognition” in 1967, walking away from Camp David in 2000, and declining Israel’s 2008 offer of 94% of the West Bank plus 1:1 land swaps to make up the difference and a corridor to Gaza, Palestinian leaders have said no to every viable two-state deal and rewarded Israeli total withdrawal from Gaza in 2005 with violence rather than peace. It’s time for that to end.
Yawn, that’s so yesterday’s news.
Gary, we’re attacking Venezuela.
Get with the program.
Cybersecurity failures are are just one of the ways the world has become a more dangerous plac
@John H — Yeah, it’s almost as if this administration shouldn’t have disbanded all our elite operatives who actually try to defend us; it’s as if this President said, ‘why would we need them anymore, Vlad’s my friend!’
“guarding hostages” — not sure that’s the verb I would use.
Speaking more generally (as if these are truly in Turkey it may be impossible to find them), but “hacking” into anything at an airport should be severely punished. Period. And no, I’m not talking about someone picking up the mic at a gate and calling out: “Can someone PLEASE come help us over here??”.
Breaking into airport systems, while harmless in this instance, can encourage others with more nefarious goals. Examples need to be made whenever caught.
In the old days there was no need to hack, you just called the dispatch to page someone:
“Mary slutly, white courtesy phone. Mary slutly”
The Turks apparently didn’t get the message from the big guy in Ankara, who was part of the deal.
@Thing 1 — 100%. This isn’t partisan. All sides, if they actually care about real national security, should be invested in securing our infrastructure, especially airports, and the associated technology. It’s a no brainer. Yet, it seems, recently, we’ve all but given up. Is that by design? Like, enable a false flag, assume more emergency powers? ‘Remember the Maine!’
The Don has done more to help the Arab squatters in Gaza than any president to date. You’d trying the ped0 worshipping squatters would be grateful.
@Walter Barry — Where you been? How is Vladivostok this morning?
How dare anyone insult our Dear Leader!
Ah, the religion of peace strikes again. Why didn’t celebrations break out across college campuses that were rioting because of Gaza? Crickets. How does it feel to be useful idiots for terrorists? They just murdered 50 of their own while delivering the hostages. Those are the “people” your side was supporting.
When your only moral compass is “Trump bad”, there’s no end to the stupid and evil you can support.
The way I see it is that Hamas is the Gaza Palestinians. No separation. The fighting between the groups is a family affair.
@Gene — I hear our Dear Leader is simply “too perfect to need to urinate or defecate”… *thunderous applause*
@ Walter — The Mideast peace agreement is a joke. If it had been reached before the complete destruction of Palestine, it would have been a remarkable achievement, but now not so much.
@jns — And that is called… prejudice.
@Gene — If you can get @Walter Barry to admit where he is based, or even what his favorite airline is, that’d be impressive. (Clownface von F…)
It came out today on Haaretz that the Israel backed Gaza militias were the ones looting the aid. Those same militias have an affiliation with ISIS. So Nathyanhoo not only propped up Hamas, he also is doing the same with these l groups. You can’t make this stuff up.
@gene
Your terrorist friends should have thought about it on october 6…
Now they paid the price, and if you ask me, it is a bargain
The whole place should have been flattened to the ground even more…but hopefully they learned
@Jay
Yes, you can make this stuff up. In fact, you just did.
@ Doug — I suspect they learned to hate even more. That would be the logical outcome. Seriously, my friends? I think not.
Finally, Gary is not mincing any words. Facts are facts, peace won’t come until the Arabs living in Gaza and Judea and Samaria stop educating their kids to hate Jews. Until then they are all terrorists and there is no reason to care for them if they don’t care for themselves and would rather blow up Jews.
Yeesh, we can’t appreciate this fragile peace for even a moment, can we…
@Gene — Apparently, @Doug is just projecting. No one here is a terrorist, or ‘friends’ with any. Most of us are Americans who like to travel and partake in the credit card hobby; we follow Gary’s blog because he’s got decent insights on the industries.
@Common Sense — No, mere civilians are not terrorists. Sadly, you diminish the real threat by pretending everyone is a threat. You seem upset with the ceasefire, and may have preferred Israel ‘finish the job,’ even if that meant slaughtering every last Arab in Israel.(That’s how Hamas seems to feel about the Jews in Israel; see the irony?) Maybe, just maybe, killing each other, like, isn’t good. Ah, never mind. You do you…
The don was the only thing keeping Israel from finally removing those goat herders from the stolen land they were squatting on. Should have let Israel finish the job once and for all and anex back their territory from the Mohammedine pedo worshipping clowns.
@Walter Barry — He promised to end wars ‘on Day 1,’ so what took so long? He also promised to not get us in new conflicts, yet, we’re going to Venezuela, now. Seems like you’re both liars.
@JacktheLadd — You complain about my occasional jokes on here, but, see above, because those are the actual Islamophobes you should be concerned about. I’m fine with peaceful coexistence. They appear to want a forever holy war.
Supportive of the Palestinian people (not Hamas) but this is not okay. If a bunch of rag-tag Turkish hackers can getting to the PA systems at the bustling Harrisburg and Kelowna airports. I shudder to think what state-sponsored hackers with a beef against the US are already into.
And honestly, not much worse than Noem trying to pi@@ all over the Hatch Act with her overtly political messaging at TSA check points. Both are illegal and inappropriate.
On a side note…Harrisburg…lovely airport. Fly in and out for work regularly.
@1990: That’s not what I said. 20% of Israel’s population are Arab and they largely consider themselves Israeli citizens and do not support terror (some radicalized ones, not withstanding).
The others are all educated with European (fortunately not US tax dollars anymore (at least not directly) through UNRWA with hate-filled text books to try and wipe out Israel any chance they get.
If you read the text books your blood would curl.
@Parker — Likewise, I am supportive of the Israeli people, and the American people, and even the Russian people, but not all of their leaders, because I am not in-favor of those who break the law, abuse their power, and harm innocent people, as many have. No, they are not all the same; some are far worse than others. We need accountability everywhere. I support the Israelis that were fighting to maintain the independence of their judiciary, before and since October 7. Likewise, I support the Russians in St. Petersburg, just yesterday, who bravely protested against Putin; that takes courage, especially in societies where freedoms of speech and assembly have been severely limited.
@Common Sense — We’re getting back to reality, so I appreciate that.
The real task over there now is the careful ‘disarmament’ of Hamas. Without that, Israel is going to have continued security risks. Like, personally, (recall, this is a travel blog), I’d like to visit Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, but I’m not planning any trips anytime soon, because it’s still quite delicate over there. For instance, I flew EK via UAE in June of this year, which felt a bit too dicey, and was glad to not be flying QR as the missiles were over there. This is bad for the people, business, tourism, etc.
Where I see the greatest opportunity for real change, lasting peace, and improvement of the safety of all people in the region is through the ‘normalization’ of relations between Israel and other moderate, stable Arab and Muslim-majority countries, which could assist with demilitarizing and rebuilding of civilian Gaza, and also, those countries taking in their fair share of refugees during the time needed for construction (it’s not like rebuilding will take a week; probably years). So, I see no reason why Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Saudi, UAE, Qatar, shouldn’t have ‘skin in the game’ if they’re going to actually defend peace. This is a more productive conversation than just vilifying any particular group of people.
Mr. Leff,
While I sometimes agree with your analysis/commentating on the Airlines (as a former AA employee I can say for a fact you got some things right and some very wrong), I have nothing but compliments about the last paragraph in this article (and that I say as an Israeli). I really appreciate your clarity.
Thanks!
I heard that. Just thought it was CNN
@L737 — Every time ‘this’ topic comes up, I can’t help but think of BoJack Horseman, Season 2, Episode 7, where he’s asked: “Do you think Israel has a right to defend herself? And what part should U.S. play as an ally?” He responds: “It’s a shame that Arafat walked away from the table in 2000. I mean, obviously, there’s no panacea but a two-state solution with an emphasis on human rights feels like a place to begin…” Today, I’m not so sure that response would appease either side.
@1990 – Good callback! Very fitting. It’s been while since we made a Bojack reference, heh. Maybe I’ll have some apple fritters for a snack later
@L737 — Rewatching that scene, the opposing sides are at a bookshelf with *Conflict Resolution* …and *Oil* (excellent show, all-around.)
@ 1990
You used my name in debate. I engage in dialogue with you because it is dialogue and worth the effort.
I am too old to spend time exchanging insults with fools. Let God sort them out.
For the record:
1. I am against hijacking public announcement systems. Hopefully the Big Guy in Ankara will take care of this as he knows how.
2. What Hamas did on Oct. 7 was un-Islamic and violated the Koran.
3. I have Jewish friends who believe what Israel has done in Gaza is un-Jewish.
4. I have been active for Palestinian rights for 50 yrs. I agree with Gary that the reason it has been 50 yrs. lies more with the representatives of the people whose rights about whom I am concerned. This is depressing but does not mean those rights are forfeit.
@jack the ladd — Respect.