Spoofing N-numbers in Mexico?!

[PandaCub]

Just for grins, I recently typed my N-number (N34PB) into FlightAware. Imagine my surprise when it said my RV-14A had recently made a flight in central Mexico! Screenshot attached. I've never flown this aircraft outside the U.S.

I wonder if this is a random glitch or could someone be spoofing transponder codes for nefarious purposes.

Anyone here had a similar experience?

 

[GalinHdz]

The INTERNET is not 100% perfect. With tens of thousands of flight operating every second of every day worldwide, errors will happen.

 

[BlackhawkSP]

Just for grins, I recently typed my N-number (N34PB) into FlightAware. Imagine my surprise when it said my RV-14A had recently made a flight in central Mexico! Screenshot attached. I've never flown this aircraft outside the U.S.

I wonder if this is a random glitch or could someone be spoofing transponder codes for nefarious purposes.

Anyone here had a similar experience?

That might be something to bring to the attention US Customs & Border patrol. If drug runners are spoofing your tail number, it may bring YOU some unwanted attention/accusations from authorities. The hard part would be finding the right peoplle in their aviation section to talk to about it.

 

[RV8iator]

Been happening a long time

I have a filter in FA to alert me when certain planes are flying to watch them. I've also got one for my plane just for kicks.

I get alerts from time to time that I'm flying when I'm not..
Come to find out FA often shows similar last digits of tail numbers. For instance, my number is N8JL and I've been alerted and displayed in several places in the country when it's actually close numbers, like 48JL, 288JL, etc.
I used Flight Radar 24 a couple times to actually zoom in when alerted to see what it actually was and that's how I found numbers ending in the same last 3 as me were actually displayed as me in Flight Aware.
I gave up worrying about it a long time ago.

 

[Thermos]

I wonder if this is a random glitch or could someone be spoofing transponder codes for nefarious purposes.

I looked at your flight track log in FlightAware, it shows that those reports came from an ADS-B receiver somewhere in the Culiacan, Mexico area. It's not impossible that someone grabbed your Mode S address and put it into their transponder - it's an easy do. Could also be an address decoding glitch in the receiver or as Jerry said, a mis-association in FlightAware.

It's happened to me too, before my RV was even flying but after I registered it. In any case, there's not much you can do about it except have an alibi!

ds

 

[Amadeus]

It's happened to me too, before my RV was even flying but after I registered it. In any case, there's not much you can do about it except have an alibi!

You were helping me clean the exhaust off the underbelly of my plane that day.......

 

[SPX]

Just for grins, I recently typed my N-number (N34PB) into FlightAware. Imagine my surprise when it said my RV-14A had recently made a flight in central Mexico! Screenshot attached. I've never flown this aircraft outside the U.S.

I wonder if this is a random glitch or could someone be spoofing transponder codes for nefarious purposes.

Anyone here had a similar experience?

There are two primary causes of this type of observation:

1. By far the most common — ATC shortens (or botches) a tail number in their ATC system, such as N134PB, and FlightAware picks up that target and associates it with the “real” N34PB.

2. A transponder has been set with the wrong Mode S address/tail number and is now broadcasting this wrong data, and FlightAware is showing that.

^^ This is the case of N34PB on FlightAware, as we can see the info come over ADS-B (case 1 would come from the ATC facility themselves). Given that the aircraft is going to/from a military airport, I don’t think there’s anything suspicious going on. Could be that a transponder that was in a previous N34PB is now in that aircraft. Could be that the aircraft used to be N34PB before it became Mexico registered, and the transponder was never reprogrammed. Who knows?

 

[lr172]

That might be something to bring to the attention US Customs & Border patrol. If drug runners are spoofing your tail number, it may bring YOU some unwanted attention/accusations from authorities. The hard part would be finding the right peoplle in their aviation section to talk to about it.

I would assume that law enforcement folks understand that criminals are not likely to use identification tools that identify themselves as criminals. I can't imagine that a drug runner would be doing that for very long if he was foolish enough not to put somebody elses hex id into his transponder. Fortunately for them, the FAA makes this easy as they publish everyone's hex id to the world, so easy to find a valid one. I suspect you cant just turn the xponder off these days as that is probably an automatic intercept in the ADIZ.

 

[rv6n6r]

Given that the aircraft is going to/from a military airport, I don’t think there’s anything suspicious going on.

I wouldn't be so sure.
FlightAware frequently shows me departing or landing at an airport that's not where I actually went. Best I can tell, in areas of poor ADS-B coverage, when I drop below range it extrapolates where I've wound up at which isn't always correct.

 

[SPX]

I wouldn't be so sure.
FlightAware frequently shows me departing or landing at an airport that's not where I actually went. Best I can tell, in areas of poor ADS-B coverage, when I drop below range it extrapolates where I've wound up at which isn't always correct.

Yes, but in this case, we can tell that isn’t happening because of the altitudes and groundspeeds when the flight lands. Plus, it’s doing a lot of pattern work at the airport that it’s seemingly based at. That’s uncharacteristic of someone using the aircraft nefariously.

 

[RV7A Flyer]

If it happens once, and only once, then who knows? Might be someone trying to do something they shouldn't, who put in some random hex code and N-number to try hide. They'd be a moron if they did it more than once, though.

If it happens repeatedly, in the same locales or likely by the same plane, somebody most likely just goofed up the inputs when they configured the system.

I was dead careful to double-check mine before first flight, and the XPDR cert guy *still* found that I had put in one digit wrong (an 8 for a B, I think).

 

[RWoodard]

Some airport in New Jersey sent me bills for years for a landing fee supposedly incurred by my Midget Mustang that never made it east of eastern Colorado. I kept calling them and even sent a letter before they finally gave it a rest. I always worried that they’d make good on their threat to send me to collections over the unpaid $10 fee!

 

[Avanza]

I have seen a ground vehicle at FL300 and a Cirrus SR22 doing 400 kt on flightradar24. People makes mistakes working with transponders.
The ICAO 24-BIT ADDRESS is linked to a specific tail number transmitted
via ADS-B to ground stations.
I tested to remove the flight ID from my mode-S Transponder and it still shows my tail number on Flightradar24.
If you remove the ICAO 24-bit adress it will show up on Flightradar24 with no info about the aircraft, but position, altitude and speed is correct.
Legal requirements on mode-S differ around the world.
ADS-B has no defence against being interfered with. The lack of any authentication within the standard (ADS-B) makes it mandatory to validate any received data (ATC) by use of the primary radar.
If the GPS signal is jammed or corrupt, it may show the aircraft where it's
not. In the flight plan form it's possible to choose SSR as P which means a mode-S transponder without aircraft information.

Good luck