SOE President's Flight Grounded, Group Behind PlayStation Network Outage Takes Responsibility

A flight carrying Sony Online Entertainment President John Smedley has been grounded because of a bomb threat, and it appears that the same group behind the current PlayStation Network outage is responsible.

Earlier today, Smedley tweeted (via Polygon) that he was flying American Airlines Flight 362 from Dallas, Texas to San Diego, California. The Twitter account belonging to the group who took responsibility for the denial-of-service attack on the PlayStation Network and other gaming services then tweeted at American Airlines, saying they've been receiving reports that there are "explosives on-board the flight."

Smedley later confirmed that his flight was being diverted to Phoenix, Arizona. "Flight diverted to Phoenix for security reasons," he said. "Something about the security and our cargo. Sitting on Tarmack." According to American Airlines' flight tracker, flight 362, now set to depart from Phoenix to San Diego, is delayed.

Earlier today, Sony confirmed that it was in fact the victim of a DDoS attack. "Like other major networks around the world, the PlayStation Network and Sony Entertainment Network have been impacted by an attempt to overwhelm our network with artificially high traffic," Sony said in a statement. "Although this has impacted your ability to access our network and enjoy our services, no personal information has been accessed."