Israeli Air Force jets were scrambled and forced to escort a passenger plane to safety on Sunday after a fake “terrorist” scare triggered panic onboard, according to multiple reports.
A passenger aboard Wizz Air Flight W95301 from London allegedly found a threatening message when they went on their phones and saw a Wi-Fi hotspot labeled with the Arabic word for “terrorist,” the Times of Israel reported.
The message triggered security forces to deploy fighter jets to escort the plane to land at Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport, where officials inspected the aircraft.
“The aircraft landed, and it was found that there was no real incident,” an Israel Airports Authority spokesperson told The Times.
The message appeared to have been sent by an ultra-Orthodox couple’s child, who allegedly changed his phone’s hotspot to the threatening name, according to the local Channel 12 and Wall outlets.
When another passenger tried to connect to the plane’s Wi-Fi, they noticed the “terrorist’ name and quickly notified the crew, the outlets reported.
The plane could be seen making multiple circles around the Mediterranean Sea before it was able to land at Ben Gurion, according to FlightAware.
The airport had briefly paused all incoming and outgoing flights as a result of the incident.
The security measures were quickly lifted, according to the Israel Airports Authority, with the incident still under investigation.
A similar incident occurred last month when a Turkish Airlines flight to Istanbul was forced to make an emergency landing after passengers found a Wi-Fi hotspot with the name “bomb on board.”
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