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!’