Image for article titled Why Are American Airlines Flights Being Haunted by Bizarre Groaning Noises?

The flight from Los Angeles to Dallas was not on time. The noises started before the plane took off, like someone was about to throw up, according to an actor from Los Angeles. They came from the loudspeaker. The flight attendants said it was a technical problem. The noises would stop once the flight started. The weird guttural moans and grunts projected over the intercom came from nowhere.

The sounds started before the plane took off. After landing, they couldn't stop it, and still had no idea what it was, so Collins took to social media to share a video of the flight.

In an interview with Gizmodo, Collins described the noises as a cross between sex noises and vomit. This writer would add a bad impression of Boris Karloff to the list after listening to the noises. The noises are difficult to explain. In the video, you can listen for yourself.

Flight attendants and pilots were as confused as the passengers were. Listeners on the internet speculated that the plane's speaker system may have been hacked or that someone on the flight had been pranking the other passengers. Walk through it and ask yourself how that would happen.

During the flight, Collins tried to get to the bottom of what was happening. He got up and tried to find out if another passenger had hijacked the plane's speakers. He realized that the people around them wouldn't notice the sound of someone making it. Collins returned to his seat and thought there would be a bigclimax for the landing. There wasn't a final moment. Everyone got off the plane.

At least two other recent incidents in which flights were plagued by weird barfing noises have been reported by the Los Angeles Times. There are five incidents involving the airport, all of which are counted by another website.

According to American Airlines, the groans from the flight were due to a mechanical issue.

The PA [Public Address] systems onboard our aircraft are hardwired and there is no external access. Following the initial report, our maintenance team thoroughly inspected the aircraft and the PA system and determined the sounds were caused by a mechanical issue with the PA amplifier, which raises the volume of the PA system when the engines are running. Our team is reviewing the additional reports.

It doesn't explain why the noises being amplified were those of a person who had lost their lunch.

Gary Kessler is a cybersecurity expert who has spoken about security in aviation systems before. Kessler found the airline's claim that its system was hack-proof to be wanting, even though he didn't have enough information about the incident.

I am always suspicious of people who say that the system is hardwired. We can't think of a way in which the system can be reached at the moment. He said that everything is hardwired until it's connected to something else.

Collins said that American Airlines didn't reach out to him after the flight to clarify what had happened, so the whole thing remains a mystery.