A passenger plane from Turkey to Spain declared an emergency after a Wifi name containing a bomb threat appeared mid-air.
The Turkish Airlines plane was en route from Istanbul to Barcelona when pilots alerted the air traffic controllers to an incident.
A passenger had created a wireless network on board the plane and set the network name containing a bomb threat, the airline’s spokesperson said.
The plane carrying 148 passengers and seven crew members was escorted by Spanish and French warplanes over the Mediterranean, El Nacional reports.
The Airbus A321 plane had just passed Sardinia when the pilots sent a squawk code often used in medical situations or other incidents requiring special assistance, flight tracking data shows.
Flight TK1853 circled three times over the sea before landing at Barcelona El Prat Airport at about 10am. It was reportedly escorted to a safe area before passengers stepped out.
No explosives were found on board after specialist teams with sniffer dogs inspected the cargo.
Footage taken by passengers appears to show armed police officers standing on the tarmac.
A sniffer dog and its handler can then be seen inspecting each suitcase one by one after they were lined up outside the plane.
A passenger, who shared images of the incident on social media, said the captain told people to ‘disembark one by one according to their seat numbers.’
He described the atmosphere as ‘eerie’ when the plane was surrounded by ‘armed personnel.’
The Catalan government said it has activated a special plan used for aeronautical emergencies to ‘monitor the risk situation on a flight landed at El Prat.’
Yahya Ustun, Turkish Airlines’ spokesperson, said: ‘It was detected that a passenger established an in-flight internet access point and set the network name to include a bomb threat.’
Spain’s Guardia Civil is investigating the incident, which did not affect Barcelona Airport’s operations.
What are plane squawk codes?
Planes use dozens of different codes to communicate with air traffic controllers on the ground.
While each plane is assigned a unique code identifying it, there are also standard codes designated for things like emergencies and hijacking.
Here are some of the common squawk codes used by pilots and what they mean:
- 7700 – General emergency
- 7500 – Hijacking
- 7600 – Loss of radio communication
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