by Mia Taylor
Last updated: 2:55 PM ET, Tue August 11, 2026
High-tech travel scams are widespread these days. And now they’re making their way onboard flights.
Delta officials have revealed that an unidentified passenger created a fake Wi-Fi network on a flight traveling from Las Vegas to Atlanta on Monday.
The incident even prompted pilots on the flight to alert air traffic control of the incident, according to a report from TechCrunch and confirmation via airline and public broadcasts from the plane.
When the Delta crew became aware of the fake Wi-Fi network onboard, the plane’s pilots issued a series of two messages to air traffic control.
The messages made clear that a passenger had “created a scam Wi-Fi.” Pilots also indicated that the network was designed to impersonate the airplane’s legitimate wireless network.
In addition to alerting air traffic control, the flight crew turned off the aircraft’s own Wi-Fi network for around 30 minutes as a result of the fake Wi-Fi discovery.
The pilots also indicated that some passengers onboard the flight came from cybersecurity conferences held in Las Vegas last week.
It’s not clear what the passenger was intending to do with the fake Wi-Fi network. A Delta spokesperson told TechCrunch however, that the safety of the flight was never in question amid the incident. Moreover, the plane’s own in-flight network was not compromised.
“We are fully investigating to gather a complete set of facts, which will take time. We will partner with federal law enforcement and aviation regulators to ensure the incident is thoroughly investigated,” the spokesperson told TechCrunch.
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