Teen’s Bomb Prank Forces International Flight To Turn Around Mid-Atlantic

A United Airlines flight headed from Newark, New Jersey, to Spain ended up back where it started after what may go down as one of the dumbest airplane pranks of the year.

United Airlines Flight UA236 departed Newark Liberty International Airport on Saturday evening, May 30, bound for Palma de Mallorca, Spain. About 90 minutes into the flight, passengers suddenly found themselves in the middle of a security scare that would ultimately send the aircraft back across the Atlantic.

Turn Your Bluetooth Off, Or We Are Turning This Plane Around

According to travelers on board, flight attendants began making urgent announcements over the intercom ordering everyone to immediately turn off their Bluetooth devices.

The warnings became increasingly serious.

"They repeated the instruction multiple times, eventually giving a final 'one-minute warning,'" one passenger told AIRLIVE. "They said an individual has done something with Bluetooth that is threatening to the safety of the flight."

When at least two Bluetooth signals continued broadcasting after repeated warnings, the crew had no choice but to treat the situation as a potential threat.

While cruising at 32,000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean, pilots declared an emergency and entered a "squawk 7700" code, the standard signal used to alert air traffic controllers to a serious situation. The Boeing 767 was then directed back toward New York.

The "Threat" Turned Out To Be A Teenager Being A Teenager

After all the confusion, frustration, and emergency procedures, investigators discovered the cause wasn't a mechanical issue, cyberattack, or actual security threat.

A passenger believed to be a 16-year-old boy had reportedly renamed his Bluetooth speaker "BOMB."

Because Bluetooth devices broadcast their names to nearby phones, tablets, and computers, the word appeared on screens throughout the cabin. Unsurprisingly, airline personnel don't get the luxury of assuming bomb-related messages are jokes while flying thousands of miles over the ocean.

What may have seemed funny to one teenager immediately triggered standard bomb-threat protocols.

Hundreds Of Passengers Pay The Price

The aircraft landed safely back at Newark, where airport police and federal agents were waiting.

Passengers were instructed to leave the plane with only their phones and passports before being loaded onto buses and driven around the airport for roughly an hour. Authorities then required everyone to pass through TSA screening again while security teams thoroughly searched the aircraft and checked luggage.

Officials wanted to ensure the Bluetooth device hadn't been hidden, discarded, or handed off to another passenger during the ordeal.

United Airlines has not announced whether the teenager could face criminal charges or a lifetime ban from flying with the airline.

Passengers were relieved that the situation wasn't real, but many were understandably irritated after losing hours of travel time because of a prank.

One traveler summed up the mood perfectly online:

"This little joke ruined it for everyone."

And that's probably the most accurate description of the entire situation.'