An iPhone app for plane spotter, Plane Finder AR, is also a ready-made tool for terrorists according to some security experts and, inevitably, the Daily Mail. The app which is also available for Android lets you point your phone at the sky and see the speed, position and altitude of planes above you. It also shows the airline, flight number, departure point and destination. Is that just interesting trivia or asking for trouble?

You can grab Plane Finder AR in the iTunes App Store now for £1.79. Pinkfoot, the British developer behind the app, says it hasn’t had any complaints about Plane Finder AR. Lee Armstrong, a director at the firm, says it’s “packaged information that is freely available” and notes that there’s a 30-second delay in information displayed by the app.

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The app works by tapping into a network of plane spotters in Britain and abroad who use Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) receivers to intercept transmissions from passing aircraft . Armstrong told the Daily Mail: “If someone really want to [shoot down a jet] they could buy their own ADS-B or radar.”

But Conservative MP Patrick Mercer, former chairman of the Parliamentary Counter Terrorism sub-committee and Daily Mail go-to-guy for security stories, says: “Anything that makes it easier for our enemies to find targets is madness. The government must look at outlawing the marketing of such equipment.”

A spokesman for the Department for Transport noted: “This application might be new but the ability to track aircraft isn’t.” What do you think? Is this just another scare story with a sexy Apple angle tagged on? Or a genuine iPhone-shaped worry?

Out now | £1.79 | iTunes (via Daily Mail)

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  • http://twitter.com/the_gadgeteur Mike

    The whack job who says they should “outlaw all things that help the enemy” needs to be outlawed himself…from ever holding another public position. He's one of the reasons the world is spiraling into a politically correct, can't offend anyone, knee-jerk reaction society.

  • Simon

    As a veteran of many package holidays and business flights I've never found any device that can accurately inform me of the real time of departure of my plane compared with the scheduled time so the bad guys have no chance of tracking them !!

    • Mic Wright

      Exactly. The Daily Mail and Patrick Mercer are living in a dream world. Particularly Mercer who likes to give scary comments on this kind of security story.

    • mic

      Totally agree. Patrick Mercer loves giving scare quotes on these kind of stories and, of course, The Daily Mail laps them up!

      • StephenEbert

        Looked at the headline. Saw the Daily Mail mentioned ,was not the least bit surprised :D

  • Daveturnbil

    This is silly. These systems have been available from Airnav systems in the USA and Kinetic in the UK for 5 years, and they are sold to government organizations, so they have known about them for years. If they thought they were a threat, with all the resources targeted at prevention of terrorism they would have banned them.
    The fact is that assuming you smuggled a ground to air missle into the country it would have its own guidance system. If you tried typing in the position you see from an ADS-B receiver, even if you could do it instantly, by the time the missle arrived the airliner would be gone.
    And the news story says it will help you steer one plane into another! The flight decks of aircraft have their own TCAS and ADS-B systems, this is so that they can AVOID other aircraft.

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