A Singapore Airlines passenger has made an unsettling discovery on the screen of the in-flight entertainment system.
Vitaly Kamluk was flying on a Boeing 787 when he spotted a small detail on the monitor below the picture, which looked suspiciously like a small pinhole camera.
“Just found this interesting sensor looking at me from the seat back on board of Singapore Airlines,” Kamluk tweeted, along with a photo of the odd feature.
“Any expert opinion of whether this a camera? Perhaps @SingaporeAir could clarify how it is used?”
The tweet generated a flurry of chatter on Twitter, with users agreeing it did look like a camera.
“What is the purpose of these cameras, and how do you store the information gathered by them? How do you notify passengers about these cameras?” one person tweeted at the airline.
Others had some theories for why it was there.
“A lot of these infotainment systems are running on Android tablets, so presumably the hardware was sourced from some vendor that thought cameras would be valued by consumers then got repurposed for aviation use,” Twitter user Michael Brown pointed out.
Others reported they’d seen similar small cameras on flights with other airlines.
Eventually, Singapore Airlines joined the conversation to confirm that indeed, it was a camera.
“We would like to share that some of our newer in-flight entertainment systems provided by the original equipment manufacturers do have a camera embedded in the hardware,” the airline said.
“These cameras have been disabled on our aircraft, and there are no plans to develop any features using the cameras.”
The airline also said the cameras were in selected business, premium economy and economy class cabins.
Satisfied with the airline’s answer, Kamluk — the passenger who originally spotted the camera — still offered some sage advice.
“I really like your IFE (in-flight entertainment) system and quality of the content. Keep security of your passengers up!” Kamluk replied to the airline.
“It’s best to disable these cameras physically until you decide to use them, i.e. with a simple sticker.”