I can understand when there's a bug that causes something like this. It doesn't excuse it, but we all introduce bugs in code, and sometimes they're disastrous.
But this? This is just straight up careless, thoughtless design with zero regard for security whatsoever. It's inexcusable.
Airplane wifi is very much still in the "enterprise software" phase, by which I mean a lowest bidder sells it to someone who will never use it and buys it with only some corporate objective in mind. I've been using it a lot recently, across several airlines, and the experience is universally bad. It doesn't surprise me they also skimped on security
At least as far as the connectivity itself goes, Viasat's Ka-band airplane WiFi is actually really good.
As luck would have it, I've got a flight coming up in a few days on a plane using the provider implicated in this article. I'll be doing some poking around myself for sure.
Coincidentally on a flight right right now and service is decent on United. Not fast but useable. One caveat is that it performs much better with a VPN enabled. Seems they block certain things such as Zoom and the VPN allows the use of the chat feature. Apple Music was struggling until the VPN was enabled and solid since.
But this? This is just straight up careless, thoughtless design with zero regard for security whatsoever. It's inexcusable.