Plane forced to make emergency landing after passenger allegedly put ‘bomb threat’ in Wi-Fi hotspot name

A Turkish Airlines flight made an emergency landing in Barcelona on Thursday morning after a passenger allegedly put a “bomb threat” in the name of an in-flight wireless network, according to authorities.

As the Turkish Airlines flight TK1853 from Istanbul was approaching Barcelona-El Prat Airport, “it was detected that a passenger had set up an in-flight internet access point and configured its network name to include a bomb threat,” Yahya Üstün, senior vice president of communications at Turkish Airlines, wrote on X.

“The necessary procedures have been immediately initiated in accordance with flight safety protocols,” Üstün said.

The aircraft landed safely in Barcelona and checks were conducted “by the relevant country’s competent authorities,” the spokesperson added.

Spain’s Civil Guard police force helped investigate the incident and found no explosives on board the Airbus A321.

Authorities have since been working to identify the passenger who inputted the threatening Wi-Fi hotspot name and “carry out the legal process,” Üstün wrote in an update later Thursday.

Operations at Barcelona-El Prat Airport resumed normally following the explosive scare.

In 2017, a Turkish Airlines flight from Nairobi to Istanbul was also diverted after the discovery of a Wi-Fi network called “bomb on board.”

With Post wires