Singapore Airlines is facing criticism on social media after passengers noticed a small camera embedded in the in-flight screens on some of their newer planes. As it usually happens, it all started on Twitter, and took off from there. The airlines replied with the following explanation.
“Hi there, thank you for reaching out to us. We would like to share that some of our newer inflight entertainment systems provided by the original equipment manufacturers do have a camera embedded in the hardware. These cameras have been disabled on our aircraft, and there are no plans to develop any features using the cameras.”
The airline explained later that the systems are manufactured by Panasonic and Thales, and can be found on their Airbus 350, A-380, Boeing 777-300ER and B787-10 planes.
But they’re not the only airlines to have these cameras on their entertainment systems. Some American Airlines Boeings laso have a similar camera.
American Airlines spokesperson Ross Feinstein confirmed to BuzzFeed News that cameras are present on some of the airlines’ in-flight entertainment systems, but said “they have never been activated, and American is not considering using them.” Feinstein added, “Cameras are a standard feature on many in-flight entertainment systems used by multiple airlines. Manufacturers of those systems have included cameras for possible future uses, such as hand gestures to control in-flight entertainment.”
