Update: Smedley has tweeted to confirm that both himself and the diverted plane are safe.
All is well
— John Smedley (@j_smedley) August 24, 2014
Yes. My plane was diverted. Not going to discuss more than that. Justice will find these guys.
— John Smedley (@j_smedley) August 24, 2014
The FBI has also issued a statement to Game Informer which reads: "Today AA Flight 362 traveling from Dallas to San Diego was diverted to Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. The flight landed without incident. Passengers were safely removed from the plane. The investigation is still ongoing."
Sony has declined to comment on the bomb scare, simply stating that it is a matter for the FBI.
Original Story: Lizard Squad, the hacker group which today caused widespread disruption to both PlayStation Network and Battle.net with DDos attacks, forced the plane carrying Sony Online Entertainment President John Smedley to divert after claiming there was a bomb on board.
The group confirmed that they were behind the attack on their Twitter account:
Sony, yet another large company, but they aren't spending the waves of cash they obtain on their customers' PSN service. End the greed.
— Lizard Squad (@LizardSquad) August 24, 2014
Sony has confirmed that they are aware of issues with PSN and that they are currently working to fix them.
Several hours after the attack began Lizard Squad then tweeted:
.@AmericanAir We have been receiving reports that @j_smedley's plane #362 from DFW to SAN has explosives on-board, please look into this.
— Lizard Squad (@LizardSquad) August 24, 2014
Smedley has confirmed that he was on the flight.
Awesome. Flight diverted to Phoenix for security reasons.
— John Smedley (@j_smedley) August 24, 2014
Something about security and our cargo. Sitting on Tarmac
— John Smedley (@j_smedley) August 24, 2014
While it seems likely that the threat was a hoax, nothing could possibly justify a bomb scare on an airplane or anywhere else for that matter.
Personal and financial information has not been compromised by the attack and we'll update you once PlayStation Network services return to normality. PlayStation Network was set for scheduled maintenence tomorrow but it now seems likely that Sony may opt to take down the service for longer than expected in order to assess the damage.
