S02.E11: 404 Flight Not Found

[thewhiteowl]

When the Cyber team investigates what appears to be a hack into air traffic control’s communication system, a greater threat emerges when a flight vanishes into thin air, drawing the team into the world’s first case of cyber-hijacking.

 

 

[ottoDbusdriver]

Shouldn't it be 404 Plot not found ?  I kid, i kid.

 

A flight vanishes into thin air -- only not really.  Nothing every disappears into thin air -- or thick air for that matter.

[ottoDbusdriver]

What was the deal with that plane ?  Per the view outside the cockpit window it was dark and very very cloudy, but when they showed the cabin there was bright light coming through all the windows.  Then the camera cuts to the 3 girls in a single row of seats, and it is pitch black outside the windows. Then the camera cuts to the flight attendant and there is bright light coming through all the windows again.  That's some Twilight Zone level nonsense going on.

 

Hold on -- someone filed an incorrect flight plan and neither of the pilot's noticed.  Considering that that flight is probably a regularly scheduled flight wouldn't the pilot be aware that they weren't following the regular flight plan ?

 

Wouldn't there be even more panic about a MISSING PLANE ?  A plane is missing -- CNN would be all over that shit.  They'd drag out Richard Quest (their aviation crash/British royalty "expert") for his point of view/smarmy innuendo.  All the news channels go apeshit every time a Malaysian air liner disappears, if that happened to a domestic airliner they would be going crazy.

 

Not only did the hacker hack the plane (since the plane experienced unexplained glitches) but also hacked the Air Traffic Control networks -- fuck the Cyber Team, Homeland Security would be all over this shit.  Why is no one panicking ?

 

Cut to the next day (the next day, a missing plane should be a All Hands on deck level of alert) and Krummie and Lil' Bow Wow are clowning around -- Krummie is talking about hooking up and Lil' Bow Wow is just being annoying.  There's a fucking plane missing !!!  But no biggies, Emmett Smith is buying coffee and Lil' Bow Wow is such a fan they just have to go talk to him.  Ummmm, there's a fucking plane missing !!! 

 

Lil' Bow Wow being his douchiest best with that hoverboard (that doesn't actually hover).

 

How big of a check did they cut for that Emmett Smith cameo -- because unless Emmett was supposed to be on that missing flight, who gives a shit ?  Wow, all the other "fans" just move out of the way once Nelson and Krummie show up.  Uggh !!

 

And apparently an entire day has gone by because now it is night time again, and there's a press conference about the missing plane. You can tell it's night because you can see the nighttime lights of Washington in the background out the window at the press conference. Why in the fuck is Avery even at that missing plane press conference, let alone speaking second ?

 

According to Avery it is everyone's top priority to find this plane -- except for Krummie and Nelson, who are busy palling around with Emmett Smith (who I suspect hacked the plane).  Avery is going to do everything in her power to find that plane - now that is some funny shit.  And then she starts taking questions.  Mind you, there is no mention at this press conference of how long the plane has been missing or how much fuel is left ?

 

Per Nelson, it is just like Malaysian Air all over again.  Except that the Malyasian airliner wasn't hacked, nor were there ghosts of it showing up on air traffic control computers.

 

Sure, a lightning strike caused 50 ghost images to appear on the Air traffic computers -- Nelson should just pack up and go home because that is such a stupid question to ask.

 

So Krummie determines where the plane is -- and then states that the elevation is low. Too low.  Umm, how about the fact that the plane wouldn't have enough fuel to fly for an entire fucking day ?

 

Really -- the locally authorities waited until someone from the NTSB showed up before they all convoyed out to the apparent crash site.  Holy cow the writers for this show are so stupid.  They couldn't have sent out a patrol car to check out the site first -- BEFORE --- the NTSB showed up so that they weren't surprised that they would find nothing but an empty field.  At no point did anyone start asking about detecting the black boxes -- which broadcast after a crash ?  No one even asked -- hey did you check the emergency frequencies for that ?

 

Then Krummie and Mundo show up for a walk in the dark at the supposed crash site (how long did it take them to get there from D.C. which is some 400 miles away) -- and find some empty boxes and cables and some mylar attached to a tree.  Seriously, no one from that convoy of emergency vehicles noticed any reflections from all that mylar in the middle of the night with all those lights from the emergency vehicles.  No one heard the rustling winds or what sounded like dangling wind chime-like noises.  Did the NTSB folks and the locals just stay at the road ?  Worst search party ever !!  They were looking for a fucking plane.  

 

And then we get a nearly 30 second montage of taping the mylar sheet back together back at CTOC all set to music.  Fuck !!!

 

They keep saying GPS, but then they keep talking about ground stations.  GPS is based on using satellite-based signals to triangulate your location.  And their explanation about how this balloon and the tech attached can easily spoof planes in the sky is just awful.  Even for this show.

 

If the pilot followed this new flight plan, even if the GPS was all gummed up wouldn't actual radar still locate the plane ?  Especially if it maintained it's 30,000 altitude, they should have been able to be tracked that way, but there was no mention at all that the internal hack of the air traffic control network somehow screwed with all the ground-based radars.

 

Mundo: "Were not just looking for a missing plane.  This is a cyber-hijacking."

Umm, no, it's not. 

 

The plane would have run out of fuel hours ago (since it's already been a full day) -- plus, wouldn't the pilot know he was off course and way out over the water ?

 

A full 10 minutes into the episode and no sign of DB -- or even a mention of him.  Was he on the missing plane ?

 

Software-Defined Radio is the blurb of the week -- but I doubt it will ever be mentioned in the entire episode. (Pssst .... it really wasn't mentioned much at all after the blurb appeared on screen.  I'm pretty sure the writers are just pulling notes out of a technical dictionary at this point each week).

 

According to Mundo, the flight has been missing for only 3 hours.  Really ?  But it went missing during the night, Krummie and Nelson got their morning coffees on the way to work and then there was a nighttime press conference (you could see the lights of D.C. in the background at the press conference).  Then Krummie and Mundo flew all the way to North Carolina, drove to the crash site, traipsed through the middle of nowhere searching for some plane-related stuff, found some stuff, flew all the way back to Washington, re-assembled all the stuff back together and inflated it as a balloon. In under 3 hours.  WTF ?  Have the writers just given up at this point ?

 

I guess since they can't take fingerprints or get DNA off the mylar balloon, or any of the tech attached to it (nor do they even try), I guess they don't need DB since he never appears in the entire episode, and no one even mentions him.

 

Radar can only find the plane up to 200 miles off the coast (I'm pretty sure that's just plain false), but they can't find anything.  Nothing at all up and down the entire eastern seaboard.  Is the plane circling around Bermuda ?  Even then they should be able to detect it with military vs. civilian radar -- again, something that no one mentions at all.  Did anyone even bother to check ?

 

Watching Avery and Nelson try and narrow down the list of suspects on the the plane was embarrassingly stupid.  They showed this Edger Miller shutting his window blind to hide from the lightning -- at night.  And there is a typo on Paul Lammers Work History -- apparently he worked as a consultant for 2 yeas in Tampa.

 

When they first showed the cabin of the plane at the start of the episode, it was pretty full -- but that diagram that Nelson has on his screen shows that the plane is nearly 1/2 empty.

 

Let's do the math -- the plane has 13 rows and is 6 seats across (3 on the left side, 3 on the right side) which gives you a total capacity of 75 passengers.  Avery already said there were 71 passengers, so there should only be 4 empty seats.  But both the on screen display and views of the cabin show that now the plane is only half-full at best.

 

Whoa !! If the 3 girls in that one row are on their way back from Tampa to Rhode Island, how did the mother of one of them show up in D.C. for the press conference --- in under 3 hours ?  Are you kidding me ?

 

Why does the layout of the plane behind Raven look like a plane with nearly 25-30 rows of seating ?  But they have clearly shown that the cabin ends after the 13th row of the plane ?  Because it's the kitchen area at the back.  And the layout CLEARLY shows that it is a two-engine aircraft (this is important later on).

 

Hold on -- the pilots are still cool despite the fact that they should be at their destination by now, but the one has a low blood sugar level, and they should be getting really low on fuel.  But no worries about that fact that they are no where near their destination.

 

Seriously, there's a plane missing, and Avery has time to go do some security checks at the front door of the building, where we find Artie from a previous episode and his shopping cart o' crap.

 

Even though the plane has only been missing for 3 hours (per Mundo), this Artie guy says that he saw it was missing "on the news today" and drove to the CSI Cyber HQ from wherever he lives (apparently towing his shopping cart) and tried to get into the building.  In less than 3 hours.

 

It would have taken at least an hour to setup all the equipment and string out the yellow tape for that experiment -- and the plane only has 2 hours of fuel left.  So let's make that 1 hour of fuel left.

 

A signal jammer that jams cell phones in movie theaters does NOT operate on the same frequencies as that used by a plane.  EVER !!  I almost laughed out loud when Artie talked about how his aeronautics club strived for accuracy -- Hah !!  Because that is one thing that this show does not do.

 

And now they decide to take some time to review the security tapes from the Tampa airport.  How long did that take, because the clock is ticking ?  And they narrow it down to Erica Chan and her oxygen generator. What exactly is an oxygen generator and where would something that small make oxygen from ?  It's got to make oxygen from something, so what exactly ? 

 

Unless Erica Chan was a doctor, how did she prescribe herself morphine from a pharmacy in Tampa ?  Especially since she majored in computer science at Beihang University.  How could she do that ? Plus, doctors can't prescribe themselves drugs (am I the only one that used to watch House ?). And this woman is not a doctor.  And wouldn't the pharmacist have flagged this when it was submitted.  Wow, that is stupid.

 

If the air marshal is protecting someone on the plane, why isn't he sitting next to him/her ?  No worries, he's just laying back and playing it cool so as not to intrude on the witness. And the DOJ rep recognizes the woman who has apparently poisoned the air marshal.

 

So this 16-year old girl -- from Rhode Island -- travels to Tampa for a volleyball tournament and while she's at the tournament Erica Chan makes no attempts to kill her.  What was she waiting for ?  Why not kill her at the tournament ?  Why go through all of this convoluted and complex nonsense when she could have gunned her down at any time at the volleyball tournament ? They claim later on that Erica didn't know which of the volleyball players it was she was supposed to kill -- it's the Triads, they should have just killed them all.

 

it gets even stupider -- when they show the layout of the plane, the information provided includes name, nationality, gender, how the ticket was purchased (online, phone, in person), and when the ticket was purchased.  While the volleyball team members all booked their tickets on Dec. 29, the air marshal booked his ticket on Dec. 2. Is WitSec prescient now too ?  Do they have pre-cogs working for them ?

 

So the plane is still missing, but the bigger concern now is that the insulin pump of the co-pilot may be going haywire from the jamming device and he is in danger. They have to save the pilot. Umm, There's a fucking plane missing !!!!!  Priorities people.

 

And the wireless signals from the entertainment system from the plane are so strong, that they can be picked up hundreds of miles offshore, yet somehow radar couldn't find this plane flying at 30,000 feet.

 

The plane has less than an hour to get back to land -- how about that fuel situation ?

 

All the talk was about Erica Chan jamming the wireless signals on the plane, but at no point did anyone mention that she had the capacity to hack the planes controls via the entertainment network. That just seemed to crop up out of nowhere.

 

Is the US Marshal witness protection service that sloppy ?  Seriously, they gave up important info about the travel plans of a witness via an e-mail spoof ?  Do they know that the Chinese Triads are after this girl ? And wouldn't the air marshal be suspicious of an Asian woman wanting to change seats and sit next to him ?

 

Apparently Erica has Herculean strength the way that she is able to fend off the passenger recruited by Avery to grab her laptop.  And why does her laptop have a dongle connected to a network cable ?  The flight entertainment system is wireless.

 

If Erica's last ditch maneuver is to "zero-out the planes thrust" as indicated by Raven, wouldn't the plane basically turn into a glider ?  And how would pulling the computer re-establish the thrust settings on the plane ?

 

And no, "pulling the computer" on the plane is not done by monkeying with the console.  My brain hurts from how stupid this is.

 

And then they show the plane landing -- it's a 747 -- are you kidding me ?  Where did they buy this stock footage of a landing from ?  Considering that they have previously shown that the plane only has one deck, and was only holding around 75 people, why didn't they get the appropriate landing footage.  The especially stupid part is that when they showed the layout of the plane previously in the episode, they showed the cockpit on the same level as the main cabin -- except in 747s where the cockpit is on the upper level. Ow, the stupid, it really, really hurts.

 

Did Erica kill the air marshal kill -- because the guy cuffing her at the end of the episode was someone else ?  And while they showed the co-pilot being treated by medical personnel, there was no scene of the air marshal ever again.

 

And where did the plane land exactly -- since it had less than an hours worth of fuel left and it was hundreds of miles off the coast. ?  Apparently the plane landed near Washington because the press conference is in the same location that Avery gave her press conference -- and the pilot, co-pilot, and passengers are all there.  At least the mother that was at the earlier press conference didn't have to drive far, since she was already there for the previous press conference.

 

To close this shit sundae of an episode, the cherry on the top is Artie tries to get a date with Avery.  But Avery has scruples because she won't date a consultant that works for her.  So this entire episode was just an excuse to setup Artie as a recurring character.

 

And for good measure, there is absolutely no mention of any accomplice on the ground that would have launched that mylar balloon thing that created all the ghost images on the air traffic control computers.  Nothing at all, in fact it isn't mentioned ever again.  Shouldn't they be looking for that person too ?

 

ETA: Grammar corrections.  Spelling matters too.

Edited January 12, 2016 by ottoDbusdriver

[GoMocs]

This was billed as the first ever cyber air hijacking...okay..this is a CBS show...as is Scorpion. Scorpion  had a cyber air hijacking didn't they? CBS needs to be consistent in their own lineup!

[Tony]

Wouldn't there be even more panic about a MISSING PLANE ?  A plane is missing -- CNN would be all over that shit.  They'd drag out Richard Quest (their aviation crash/British royalty "expert") for his point of view/smarmy innuendo.  All the news channels go apeshit every time a Malaysian air liner disappears, if that happened to a domestic airliner they would be going crazy.

 

Clearly Avery managed to calm everyone down at the press conference when she assured them all that her team of super hackers plus Mundo was on the job. I laughed when the mother of the teenage girl went from panic shrieking to just staring blankly after hearing Avery speak.

[UncleChuck]

 

Why in the fuck is Avery even at that missing plane press conference, let alone speaking second ?

For the same reason that Mac Taylor and Horatio Caine ALWAYS led the charge on every SWAT raid--and Super Ray ALWAYS knew everything

...On the CSI franchise TPTB always allow the "star" actor and his/her agents to write their contract with stipulations that the "star" will always be front and center and IN CHARGE.

[j5cochran]

In the continuing list of unanswered questions, why is the teenaged girl in witness protection standing front and center at the post-landing press conference?  Shouldn't the U.S. Marshals hide her face? Or are they going to move her to a new undisclosed location with a new identity, again?

[GoMocs]

In the continuing list of unanswered questions, why is the teenaged girl in witness protection standing front and center at the post-landing press conference?  Shouldn't the U.S. Marshals hide her face? Or are they going to move her to a new undisclosed location with a new identity, again?

 

I was thinking the same thing..assuming this was a real life situation, only reason I could venture to guess what the press conference happened so quick they didnt' have time to get her out of the way, but they showed them there arresting the perp. So, the FBI was there and should have stopped this. You would think she, the witness, would know to get out of view of the cameras also.

 

You would have to move her anyway. It would be known by the "Triad" she was on the plane, and they could probably do some putting 1 and 1 together and figure out which one she was, or at least narrow it down to a few, then kill all of them.

 

Just sloppy writing?

Edited January 11, 2016 by GoMocs

[shrewd.buddha]

According to Mundo, the flight has been missing for only 3 hours.  Really ?  But it went missing during the night, Krummie and Nelson got their morning coffees on the way to work and then there was a nighttime press conference (you could see the lights of D.C. in the background at the press conference).  Then Krummie and Mundo flew all the way to North Carolina, drove to the crash site, traipsed through the middle of nowhere searching for some plane-related stuff, found some stuff, flew all the way back to Washington, re-assembled all the stuff back together and inflated it as a balloon. In under 3 hours.  WTF ?  Have the writers just given up at this point ?

 

This show is utterly ridiculous when it comes to locations, times and logic.  There would have to be a transporter at the Cyber DC headquarters for most of this to make sense. 

 

The Emmett Smith cameo was completely WfF.  

 

This show is entertaining ... but in a way that is very different from what is intended. 

[juliet73]

This show just gets worse and worse!!! The ONLY reason I watch it now is so I can LOL while reading Otto's review :)

[Bobbin]

An entire show built around deus ex machina.

Why is the principal heading a no-info press conference? For the same reason that only the lead detective can come to the rescue, no matter how far away in cross-town, rush-hour traffic, never the beat cop just down the street. And no matter how volatile the situation, "Don't make a move until I get there!"

[Lebanna]

This was billed as the first ever cyber air hijacking...okay..this is a CBS show...as is Scorpion. Scorpion  had a cyber air hijacking didn't they? CBS needs to be consistent in their own lineup!

To be fair, I think Scorpion is based (along with Hawaii 5-0) in the NCIS universe, where CSI is just a TV franchise that nobody watches anymore. So, in that aspect at least, pretty much like our universe.

[Bill C.]

Apart from the purple blouse that Patricia Arquette was rocking in this episode--and for that alone I can't blame Artie for wanting to go to there with Avery--as a diehard fan of CSI: Miami, the best comedy CBS has done in the past decade or so, this might be the episode that rivals its overall level of batshit crazy "How the hell does that even work?"