Turkish Airlines Flight Makes Emergency Landing Following Bomb Hoax

A Turkish Airlines flight made an emergency landing in Barcelona on Thursday after a passenger used the naming of an in-flight wireless network hotspot to deliver a bomb threat that ended up being a hoax. 

According to reports, it was detected that one of the passengers set up a wireless internet hotspot indicating that there was a bomb on board. The Wi-Fi hotspot, which contained the words, “I have a bomb,” was discovered as Flight 1853 was approaching its destination at Barcelona’s El Prat Airport. The flight, carrying 148 passengers and seven crew members, made an emergency landing and was escorted by one Spanish and one French fighter jet to a designated area at the airport for inspection. 

Yahya Üstün, Turkish Airlines senior vice president of communications, said that following the emergency landing security searches were conducted by Spanish authorities and no irregularities were found. According to Fox News, a police dog was present on the tarmac to examine the passenger’s luggage.  

Üstün also added that authorities are working to determine which passenger instituted the hotspot connection and that they would “carry out the legal process.”

The aircraft operating the flight was an Airbus A321. Following the requisite security checks, El Prat Airport resumed normal operations.