The third domain is the Passenger Information and Entertainment Services Domain, which contains the videos and ground tracks that passengers watch from their seats in the cabin. This domain includes a system that reports engine health measurements as well as system performance problems to an airline’s maintenance crews, by satellite link in flight, before the airplane lands. The Airline Information Service Domain, which includes the information and management systems Santamarta claimed he could reach, provides information to the pilots-in some aircraft models, through something known as an electronic flight bag, a digital edition of all the old paper sectional charts, terminal procedures, and flight-regime calculations that pilots used to lug around in black leather flight bags. The Aircraft Control Domain, which includes avionics and flight controls, is the holy of holies. Airlines and manufacturers-through the Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics (RTCA), a consortium that develops engineering standards-agree to organize onboard networks into three, isolated domains. To understand Santamarta’s work-and Boeing’s subsequent refutation-you need to know a little about the electronic networks aboard e-Enabled aircraft.
