A Turkish Airlines flight has made an emergency landing at Barcelona’s El Prat Airport after a passenger created an in-flight wireless network whose name contained a bomb threat, an airlines spokesperson says.
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,” the spokesperson, Yahya Üstün, said.
As a result, flight TK1853 made an emergency landing.
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Firefighters deployed five crews as a precaution, and local police units from El Prat de Llobregat were also mobilised.
According to flight-tracking data, the plane flew in holding patterns off the Catalan coast for about 20 minutes before landing.
The plane made an emergency landing at an isolated area of the airport while authorities assessed the situation.
Passengers on the flight disembarked on their own and were taken to a safe area, authorities said.
Spain’s Civil Guard police force said it is investigating the incident, and added that the airport was operating normally.
