Turkish Airlines flight makes emergency landing in Barcelona after 'threat' alert

MADRID — A Turkish Airlines flight made an emergency landing Thursday at Barcelona’s international airport after a passenger created an in-flight wireless network whose name contained a bomb threat, an airlines spokesperson said.

As the Turkish Airlines TK1853 flight from Istanbul was approaching its destination at Barcelona-El Prat Airport, “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, the plane, an Airbus 321, made an emergency landing.

The airline said the return flight would operate normally.

Spain’s Civil Guard police force said it had investigated the incident, and that no explosive was found on-board. It added that the airport was operating normally.