United Airlines flight forced to make emergency U-turn due to device carried by millions on planes everyday
The process of flying understandably requires passengers to go through several different security processes, yet one common device used by millions on planes every single day forced a United Airlines journey to immediately turn around after flight attendants were alerted to a potential threat.
While you might have to put your gadgets into airplane mode when embarking on a flight, this still thankfully allows people to take advantage of Bluetooth connections which can definitely make or break your time traveling.
Some might be encouraged to 'raw dog' their flight by simply staring at the map screen for hours upon end, yet others will typically put on some noise cancelling headphones to either watch a few films or block out the sound of a crying baby four rows back.
One passenger on board the United Airlines flight 236 from Neward to Palma de Mallorca on Saturday, May 30, discovered that they should probably pay more attention to this setting than they thought, however, as a seemingly harmless joke brought the plane to a halt.
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As reported by The Verge, several posts on Reddit over the weekend all seemed to collectively share the experience of the aforementioned cancelled United Airlines journey, as flight attendants told everyone to turn off their Bluetooth connections or the flight would take an immediate emergency u-turn.
"About an hour into the flight the flight attendant announces on the loud speaker that all passengers must turn off bluetooth immediately or we'll have to turn the plane around to Newark. They said it was an order from Chicago headquarters," one post explained.
"They repeated the instruction multiple times, eventually giving a final '1 minute warning'. They most recently said there are still 2 active Bluetooth devices and they are in communication with Chicago to understand next steps."
Another post describes the procedure after the plane was grounded, illustrating that passengers got off the flight "with only our phones and passports and they put us all on bussed and [drove] us around for 1 hour."
Updates to the posts indicated that the issue stemmed from one Bluetooth connection being perceived as "threatening to the safety of the flight," with attendants commenting that "this little joke is ruining it for everyone."
Further information was obtained from an archived recording from Air Traffic Control, revealing what many now speculate to have been the perception of an alleged bomb threat.
"There's a security detail out there. Someone had a Bluetooth speaker, and they named it a certain four-letter word," the dispatch revealed. "So they have to inspect the whole aircraft, including the cargo area, and the passengers have to evacuate."
While there's no official confirmation that the name was 'bomb', but the necessity of a full-airplane search does seem to suggest as much — or at least something along those lines.
It goes to show that something as simple as a Bluetooth name joke can have serious ramifications for when you're out and about, so it's maybe best to just keep it simple going forward.