Wizz Air flight intercepted by Israeli fighter jets after child 'changes his phone's name to terrorist' sparking bomb scare
A Wizz Air flight had to be intercepted by fighter jets after a child changed his parent's phone's Wi-Fi password to the word "terrorist".The Israeli Air Force scrambled jets to escort the passenger plane flying into Ben Gurion Airport from London Luton after a passenger reported receiving a "threatening message" on the phone.Israeli media reported that the message appeared on the phone of an ultra-Orthodox couple.The supposed message was in fact the name of the child's parent's mobile hotspot which read "terrorist" in Arabic.The Wizz Air flight was then escorted to the Tel Aviv travel hub by the Israeli jets.Data from FlightRadar showed the flight making loops over the Mediterranean Sea before it landed in the Holy Land.Bomb-sniffing dogs were then deployed to investigate passengers as they arrived at the airport.A spokesman for the Israeli Airports Authority said: "Due to suspicion of suspicious behaviour on the plane, security forces acted according to the procedures for such a case. The incident ended. The Israeli Air Force scrambled jets to escort the passenger plane (file photo) | GETTY"The plane landed and it was found that there was no actual incident."After a brief pause, air traffic from and to Ben Gurion resumed.In January, a similar false bomb threat on a Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul led to an emergency landing at Barcelona's El Prat Airport.It was also detected after a passenger created an in-flight hotspot that included a bomb threat in its name.Officials eventually confirmed there was 'no credible threat' after the flight landed | GETTYNo explosives were found by Spain's Guardia Civil police force following a thorough inspection of the aircraft.Last year, Buzz, a Polish airline operated by the Ryanair group, was escorted by two German fighter jets after a potential security threat.The Sofia, Bulgaria, to London Stansted flight was rerouted around halfway through its three-hour flight after a man who was not on the flight said a Palestinian passenger planned to "do bad things".Similarly, an American Airlines flight from New York to New Delhi was diverted to Rome by two fighter jets last year.The Wizz Air flight was forced to circle over the Mediterranean after the supposed bomb scare | GETTYNBC reported at the time that a bomb threat was sent via email.One of the passengers, Neeraj Chopra, told AP: "I felt a little panic of, OK, what’s going on here? There’s got to be like something bigger going on here."Flight 292 was then inspected by law enforcement - and no credible threat was found.GB News has approached Wizz Air regarding the Luton-Ben Gurion flight.
