Ominous Bluetooth device name forces United Airlines flight back to Newark

A United Airlines flight to Spain from Newark, N.J., turned around mid-flight on Saturday due to a "potential security threat" created by a Bluetooth device. Photo by Angus Mordant /Bloomberg

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A United Airlines flight bound for Spain on Saturday night was forced to return to the New Jersey airport it departed from after one of the 190 passengers allegedly used “a certain four-letter word” to name their Bluetooth, triggering security concerns.

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While the airline itself didn’t confirm the nature of the “potential security threat” on flight 236 from Newark to Palma de Mallorca in its statement to National Post, multiple U.S. media outlets, including CNN and NPR, are reporting that the device was dubbed “BOMB” and several passengers have shared details of their experience on social media.

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The Boeing 767 left Newark Liberty International Airport just before 6 p.m. Saturday and was about four hours into the flight when it made its mid-Atlantic U-turn, touching down at 10:07 local time, according to data from airline tracking site FlightAware.

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The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, responsible for managing the airport, said passengers were disembarked upon landing, at which time police and K-9 units swept the plane, finding no security threats, according to NJ.com.

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An audio clip of air traffic controller recordings at the airport is also circulating online, in which a man’s voice asks why the aircraft has returned.

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“There’s a security detail out there, someone had a Bluetooth speaker and they named it a certain four-letter word,” another voice responded, per NPR. “So they have to inspect the whole aircraft, including the cargo area … passengers have to evacuate.”

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The passengers went through security again, departed around 2:20 a.m. and landed in Spain at 3:47 local time, just over nine hours later than scheduled.

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According to passenger Jordan Moore, who posted about the incident on TikTok, confirmed that the device called “BOMB” was first noticed during takeoff and stayed on for two hours after the flight crew asked that all Bluetooth devices be activated, at which point the decision was made to turn around.

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“Staff continue to reassure us they believe this is a ‘selfish joke’ but that proper precautions must be taken in order to reach the safest possible outcome,” wrote Moore, who later spoke with NBC.

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“It was kind of back and forth between, like, is somebody playing a sick, selfish prank, or are we actually concerned,” she told the outlet.

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She later shared a video of several emergency response vehicles approaching the plane after landing and videos of her waiting out the delay in the airport, followed by multiple geo-tagged videos from her time in Spain.

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Her most recent video shows her checking all the active Bluetooth devices during the return trip.

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“Welcome to PTSD,” she wrote.

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In another passenger-recorded video also being shared online, the pilot is heard informing passengers of the diversion “because of one person, who doesn’t want to comply with the instructions and because of the foolishness of this one person that wants to make a joke and it’s not funny and it’s compromising the integrity and safety of not only this crew, but all the other passengers.”

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The pilot continued by saying federal agents would board the aircraft after landing to search for the person.

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“We’re not going to be taking this very lightly,” he warned.

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National Post has contacted the Port Authority for more information on whether the device’s owner was located and whether they faced any charges.

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In a reply to comments on her post, now viewed more than 850,000 times, Moore said it belonged to a male who was escorted away and wasn’t on the later flight. Some reports suggest the accused is a 16-year-old boy, according to The Associated Press.

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