A Turkish Airlines aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing in Barcelona after a potential bomb threat was detected by the crew.
The aircraft, an Airbus A321 (registration TC-JRR) was operating flight TK1853 between Istanbul (IST) and Barcelona-El Prat (BCN) and landed safely at around 11:00 local time. The aircraft taxied to a remote area of the airport where all 148 passengers and seven crew members were evacuated.
The alert was triggered during the last stage of the flight, when the aircraft was over the Western Mediterranean near the island of Sardinia. A member of the crew noticed a passenger had created an internet access profile on the aircraft’s inflight connectivity system with a username that could be interpreted as having contained a bomb threat.
Upon declaring emergency, two fighter jets, one French and one Spanish, were scrambled and escorted the airliner until it landed in Barcelona.
Once the evacuation was completed, security forces proceeded to check both the aircraft and the passengers, with no explosives reportedly being found.
During the event, Barcelona airport continued to operate as normal, said Spanish airport operator AENA.