A passenger’s choice of a hot spot name forced a plane to make a landing.
The Turkish Airlines flight, TK1853, was en route from Istanbul to Barcelona on Thursday morning when the crew reported a bomb threat aboard.
The airline’s spokesperson, Yahya Üstün, said in a Thursday post on X, “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.”
He said that the aircraft, an Airbus A321, made a safe landing at Barcelona’s El Prat airport, following which Spanish authorities conducted an investigation.
In a follow-up post, Üstün said, “No irregularities were found,” and that authorities were working to identify the offending passenger.
Per data from the aircraft tracking website FlightRadar24, the flight made two loops off the eastern coast of Barcelona about three hours into the flight, circled for about 20 minutes before continuing to Barcelona.
Spain’s Civil Guard told Reuters that the plane was inspected after passengers disembarked, and no explosives had been found.
It reached Barcelona at about 11 a.m. on Thursday, 30 minutes later than scheduled.
Representatives for Turkish Airlines and the Spanish Civil Guard did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.
This is not the first time in recent years that a plane has had to make an expeditious landing because of a bomb threat.
In October 2024, an Air India flight to Chicago, with more than 200 passengers on board, was diverted to a remote Canadian town due to an apparent bomb threat.
And in November 2023, A United Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Vancouver was diverted to San Francisco because of a bomb threat, airport officials in San Francisco said.
