A Turkish Airlines (THY) flight made an emergency landing Thursday in Barcelona after a passenger created an in-flight wireless network whose name contained a bomb threat, a communications executive said.
As the flight from Istanbul was approaching its destination in Barcelona, "it was detected that a passenger established an in-flight internet access point and set the network name to include a bomb threat," Yahya Üstün, senior vice president of communications at Turkish Airlines, said in a post on X. As a result, the aircraft made an emergency landing.
Spain’s Civil Guard police force said it is investigating the incident, and added that the airport was operating normally, an Associated Press (AP) report said.
Following the incident on our TK1853 flight, "the necessary security searches were conducted by the relevant country's competent authorities, and no irregularities were found," Üstün said in a separate post.
"Efforts have been initiated to identify the passenger in question and to carry out the legal process. Our aircraft's return flight will be carried out after the completion of passenger boarding," he added.
