United Airlines Flight To Spain Pulls U-Turn Over Bluetooth Device Name
- Reference: 0183544210
- News link: https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/26/06/01/1636253/united-airlines-flight-to-spain-pulls-u-turn-over-bluetooth-device-name
- Source link:
> A United Airlines flight traveling from Newark, New Jersey, to Palma de Mallorca, Spain, was forced to make a U-turn and [2]return to Newark after more than four hours in the air due to a security concern. According to passenger reports and air traffic control audio, the disruption was [3]caused by a personal Bluetooth speaker -- reportedly belonging to a teenager -- that had been named "BOMB." Upon returning to Newark, passengers were evacuated so that security details could inspect the entire aircraft and cargo area. The flight was ultimately cleared, reboarded, and arrived at its destination in Spain approximately nine and a half hours behind schedule.
[4]Multiple posts on [5]social media from [6]self-identified passengers indicate that the problem was a Bluetooth device on board the plane. One post [7]referenced in-flight announcements with "lots of comments like 'this little joke is ruining it for everyone.'"
Audio [8]from air traffic control sheds a little more light on the situation: "There's a security detail out there, someone had a Bluetooth speaker and they named it a certain four-letter word," another voice responded. "So they have to inspect the whole aircraft including the cargo area [and] passengers have to evacuate."
[1] https://slashdot.org/~Tony+Isaac
[2] https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/UAL236/history/20260530/2020Z/KEWR/KEWR
[3] https://www.npr.org/2026/05/31/nx-s1-5841913/united-airlines-flight-diversion-bluetooth
[4] https://www.reddit.com/r/unitedairlines/comments/1tse6mq/comment/oovkvy9/
[5] https://www.reddit.com/r/unitedairlines/comments/1tsk81w/ua_236_the_bluetooth_flight/
[6] https://www.tiktok.com/@jomo_2/photo/7645867451548224798?_r=1&_t=ZP-96oFMM5wlqA
[7] https://www.reddit.com/r/unitedairlines/comments/1tse6mq/comment/oovkvy9/
[8] http://liveatc.net/
Re: (Score:3)
Educate yourself [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shouting_fire_in_a_crowded_theater [wikipedia.org]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shouting_fire_in_a_crowded_theater
Re: (Score:3)
Not to mention that United Airlines is a private business, which means it's not just a question of what is legal anyway. United also has a fair bit of latitude in terms of what is considered acceptable behavior on the part of its customers (passengers).
Re:Unconstitutional (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not up to United, it's up to the TSA.
Don't worry, soon they'll be tearing your glued together phone apart to check for bombs, and then making you reassemble it before you board (if it'll even go back together), and they'll cut your toothbrush apart to make sure it's not a weapon (which will make it a weapon, so they have to confiscate it).
Re: (Score:2)
Hard to dismiss that as an unreasonable step considering a few thousand pagers distributed to suspected terrorists had a small load of plastic explosives in them a year or so ago!
Re: (Score:2)
I remember that.
I know it's "hard to dismiss that as an unreasonable step" for TSA to destroy your phone and smartwatch, toothbrush, take scissors to your clothes, and so on.
Re: (Score:2)
At least nobody has (yet?) tried to make a suppository bomb.
Not sure I'd be happy with *those* sorts of screenings...
Re: (Score:1)
What if they named the device MUHAMMAD?
Re: (Score:3)
You realize that's the point, right?
Re: (Score:3)
Israel would shoot them down.
Re:Unconstitutional (Score:5, Insightful)
"In contrast, during the Brooklyn Theatre fire of December 5, 1876, theatre staff were reluctant to cause a panic by shouting fire and instead pretended that the fire was part of the performance. This delayed the evacuation, leading to a death toll of at least 278." Very educational.
Re: (Score:1)
Different kind of theatre.
Re: (Score:2)
Also, a South Korean ferry that told children to stay in their cabins while it was taking-on water: When it listed suddenly, the doors jammed and the children drowned (2014-Apr).
Re: (Score:2)
Educate yourself from an article you obviously didn't read? This is one of the most misunderstood and misused arguments in case law. You can tell how misused it is just by the introduction.
Re: (Score:2)
"Ultimately, whether it is legal in the United States to falsely shout "fire" in a theater depends on the circumstances in which it is done and the consequences of doing it. The act of shouting "fire" when there are no reasonable grounds for believing one exists is not in itself a crime, and nor would it be rendered a crime merely by having been carried out inside a theatre, crowded or otherwise. "
If you were trying to show that it is illegal, you made a poor choice.
Re: (Score:2)
I should have said unconstitutional.
As it stands there are other laws that deal specifically with flying that could very much make this illegal, and probably do.
Re: (Score:2)
I doubt it rises to that level. The device had a name that happened to be Bomb. Yelling FIRE is a specific communication of a dangerous condition.
Re: (Score:2)
> You're allowed to name your device whatever you want. What law did they break?
What do you mean law? Who has been charged? Who is in jail? What does any of this have to do with the law or constitution?
So the clever hijackers (Score:2)
...will name their device "SAFE". I mean, it's an impossible situation. "How dare you not take it seriously" versus "how dare you waste 9+ hours of my life - and all the other passengers' lives - unnecessarily.
Re: (Score:2)
Makes me wonder if they would have turned around if it was named "Not a bomb"
Consequences? (Score:1)
Will United put the teenager on their no-fly list? Can the other passengers demand compensation from the teenager's parents for the delays?
Re:Consequences? (Score:4, Insightful)
Did the kid actually do anything wrong? He might have named it 2 years ago. It might have just been in the luggage and got turned on accidentally. Should we be blaming the kid or whatever idiot on the plane saw it on his or her bluetooth list and freaked out?
Re: (Score:2)
There is a story about a math teacher in a flight in the USA, he was taking notes, mostly equations while flying. His neighbour was a lady who could not read a thing of what he wrote. But panicked he would be terrorist.
Seriously: he is writing in a paper booklet, that made him a terrorist ...
For some odd reason the crew emergency landed the flight.
I guess with some google fu you find the story ... it was a few years ago, but not very long.
Re: (Score:2)
Here is one [1]report [theguardian.com] of that story.
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/may/07/professor-flight-delay-terrorism-equation-american-airlines
Re:Consequences? (Score:5, Informative)
I don't think the kid did anything at all.
[1]https://hellottec.com/product/... [hellottec.com]
[1] https://hellottec.com/product/bomb-portable-bluetooth-speaker-2bh15
Re: (Score:2)
From the manual:
> Choose Bomb from you phone's bluetooth menu and pair with your phone.
Probably this speaker tbh (Score:3, Funny)
[1]https://www.shoptronics.com/sk... [shoptronics.com]
[1] https://www.shoptronics.com/skullcandy-pipe-portable-speaker-system-for-ipod-s7pibn-cz
Re: (Score:2)
Pretty sure it was this one.
[1]https://hellottec.com/product/... [hellottec.com]
[1] https://hellottec.com/product/bomb-portable-bluetooth-speaker-2bh15
Barry (Score:3)
Obligatory Barry clip:
[1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
"My Bluetooth isn't paring with the device I'm trying to denotate..."
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kzzg3q1YuUE&t=2s
Re: (Score:2)
> "My Bluetooth isn't paring with the device I'm trying to denotate..."
Denotating it is exactly what the Bluetooth name does. *Detonating* it, on the other hand...
Re: (Score:3)
And if he's trying to "pare" it, a small, sharp knife would probably work better.
Re: (Score:2)
I hate it when [1]that [brown.edu] happens!
[1] https://webhelper.brown.edu/joukowsky/courses/13things/files/6142167.jpg
Re: (Score:2)
a nokia bomb!! that is indestructible!!
If you don't want to go to Spain (Score:2)
Just say No hablo el lenguaje de conquistadores
So you picked a four-letter word instead
What could go wrong
The worst part is... (Score:2)
... that it was just a typo by a guy naming the device after himself, "Bob"
Stupid people doing stupid things is somehow (Score:1)
usually an American. We have our version of "Americans" within America, they live in Florida.
There is no reason to pay attention to wireless ID names or t-shirts... where are the rational adults? Simply because somebody makes a joke the brains all turn 100% off and they act like robots... except by the time robots are running things, it's likely the chatbot will not be so stupid as to over react like this.
Even a small child knows to lie about sneaking a cookie they do not openly eat the thing when they are
The 1990s slang phrase... (Score:2)
The 1990s slang phrase is back! Here:
[1]https://memes.yarn.co/yarn-cli... [memes.yarn.co]
--JoshK.
[1] https://memes.yarn.co/yarn-clip/8bbeb25d-6b3b-4393-8264-0d4d5cbc2019
Recipe for disaster (Score:5, Funny)
Labeling your item with a generic "BOMB" is such a rookie mistake. Always - always! - use more descriptive bluetooth name so you know exactly which device you are controlling. E.g., "cmdrtaco's BOMB".
Oops. Did I just make Slashdot do a U-turn?
Bluetooth enabled bombs now (Score:2)
Well, budget cuts mean that we can't use burner phones to detonate bombs. Now we have to use cheaper bluetooth.
Sucks, because you have to be within 30 feet of the bomb now to detonate it.
Stupid Passenger, but why was it an issue? (Score:2)
The name is irrelevant, granted, no one should call a BT device "BOMB" on an airplane. You can capture the packets, and determine what the device is, which would quickly resolve the concern. The real issue, as I see it, why didn't they do that before overreacting? They could have determined the BT device, found where it is, and determined why it was called "BOMB", then deal with it.
In 2026, are planes not equipped to determine wireless devices? It would seem nearly essential to capture the air traffi
Re: (Score:1)
You can't rename a Bluetooth speaker. Blame the manufacturer, not the kid who owned it.
Re: (Score:2)
If you can't, fair enough, I didn't know that.
Re: (Score:2)
You can't rename a Bluetooth speaker.
Bullshit. Maybe you can't. I can.
Re: (Score:2)
You can capture the packets, and determine what the device is, which would quickly resolve the concern. The real issue, as I see it, why didn't they do that before overreacting?
You think every plane is equipped with a BT sniffer? You think that even if a BT speaker were identified as the source, it couldn't have a bomb inside?
They didn't "overreact." Long before they turned around, [1]multiple announcements were made to turn off all BT devices. [nj.com] The reprobate didn't obey instructions from the flight cr
[1] https://www.nj.com/news/2026/05/united-airlines-flight-to-spain-diverted-back-to-nj-following-possible-security-threat.html
Re: (Score:2)
Every PHONE is potentially a Bluetooth sniffer... ever heard of nRFConnect app? It's free.
Re: (Score:2)
Do I think planes should have radio sniffing equipment? Yes, absolutely. The idiotic name of the speaker, and the passenger dumb enough to take it on board, are guilty, that's without argument. However, that being true, it's not difficult to figure out what's broadcasting, and all the annoyance could have been avoided, and that's really a bigger issue.
Re: (Score:2)
This is an example of "sometimes you can be too careful".
Re: (Score:2)
Yep, and I understand why they turned around, but it shouldn't have been hard to determine the root cause of the issue.
Airport terminal justice.... (Score:2)
I hope they took that damn kid into custody. If not for "hoax device" or whatever, then for his own protection from a couple hundred pissed off passengers.
Re: (Score:1)
Well, there is still the likelihood that he named the thing long ago at home and simply forgot the name of the device when he put it into his bag.
Re: (Score:2)
Probably should have turned off Bluetooth advertising while ON A FRICKING PLANE.
Well that practical joke bombed (Score:2)
It also failed to get a rise out of the aircraft.
I followed it in real time (Score:5, Interesting)
I followed this is real time on Reddit. People from onboard were relaying the messages from the crew and people on Reddit were tracking the flight, observing the u-turn.
Apparently it's a bluetooth speaker that the manufacturer names "Bomb". I'm not sure how much blame the kid deserves.
Re: (Score:2)
That's beyond a stupid decision by the manufacturer.
Re: (Score:2)
How many Bluetooth devices allow one to set a (BSS) name? I've bought budget and a few brand-name devices: I've never seen the option.
How did they identify the device out of hundreds of passengers? It's a little disconcerting that they're surveilling private Bluetooth connections: I notice that no-one complained about that. Also notice, the authority figures blaming the child: Authority figures with a 'world owes me' attitude. To be fair, it's the US TSA with a 'world owes me' attitude, the cockpit
Remember: Don't greet friend Jack in airport! (Score:2)
The security guards go nuts when anybody says, "Hi, Jack!"
FBI SURVEILANCE VAN (Score:2)
This reminds me of the (still badly) running joke that people name their WIFI routers. I had a friend who used to freak out over that, and I'd always respond with "cmon, you *really* think the FBI would be that obvious? His conservative conspiracy mind was hard to over-ride.
Re: (Score:2)
Same, I had that for a while.
The wifi names were "Surveillance Van 5" and "Surveillance Van 24" for 5Ghz and 2.4GHz channel. I set the family's cell phones network device names "Surveillance Operator 1", "Surveillance Operator 2", "Surveillance Operator 3", and "Surveillance Operator 4". For house guests sometimes it got a chuckle, "connect to surveillance van 24". I know when I went to friends who took their networks seriously, I had someone ask about it.
Reminds me (Score:2)
Of every tv show where a bomb has a convenient countdown clock on it. In the old days it was an alarm clock wired to the bomb, then it was changed to a red digital timer because progress.
Anyone remember the movie V for Vendetta? Conveniently, V's bomb in the control room had a countdown clock so the guy who had no idea what he was doing knew how many seconds he had left.
Commercial Speaker's Own Name? (Score:2)
Did the teen admit to naming his bluetooth device "BOMB" or did he have a "BOMB" Model bluetooth speaker, like this one
[1]https://www.galaxus.ch/en/s1/p... [galaxus.ch]
that came prenamed at the factory?
[1] https://www.galaxus.ch/en/s1/product/hama-bomb-30-10-h-bluetooth-speakers-46480759
Re: (Score:2)
That site is blocking VPN clients (sus) but here's another one you can pick up at CVS:
[1]https://www.cvs.com/shop/ijoy-... [cvs.com]
Imagine how much jet fuel was wasted on being stupid.
[1] https://www.cvs.com/shop/ijoy-beach-bomb-waterproof-bluetooth-speaker-assorted-colors-prodid-242992
it's over, the terrorists have won (Score:3)
Clearly we're all terrified now, so I'd say their job is done.
They can just sit back and relax and watch us all live in fear.
The kid didn't even put the BOOM in the BOOM BOX (Score:2)
Nonetheless this hilarious story is the BOMB. I myself have often used publicly embarrassing wifi and bluetooth device names, but nothing too explosive [1]https://www.reddit.com/r/headp... [reddit.com]
[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/17u8cye/does_anyone_else_give_their_bluetooth_devices/
Irrational security (Score:2)
The bluetooth name has nothing to do with security. It is more likely that MattsSpeaker is a bomb than the thing named BOMB. Any number of things with no bluetooth or bluetooth turned off are also more likely to be a bomb than the bluetooth thing called BOMB.
what was the point of turning around (Score:2)
Four hours is about halfway from NJ to Barcelona. I'm not sure I see the point in turning around.
"Average" bomber. (Score:4, Funny)
Joke only works if one assume any bomber wouldn't be dumb enough to announce the fact.
Re: (Score:2)
At this point all their base, did in fact, belong to them.
At this point CATS was just doing a villain monologue on screen.
Re: (Score:3)
We don't even need real terrorists any more when we can terrorise ourselves using nothing more dangerous than a Bluetooth device name.
Re: (Score:2)
Land of the free, home of the brave.
It may have been true at some point..
Re: (Score:2)
I was just reading this comment on another social site:
"Any statement that starts with "No one would be stupid enough to..." is false."
Re: (Score:2)
> I was just reading this comment on another social site:
> "Any statement that starts with "No one would be stupid enough to..." is false."
There's probably too much metal between the cargo hold and the passenger compartment for Bluetooth to work anyway. I think all actual bombs on aircraft (other than the failed shoe bomber) have been triggered by pressure switches at altitude or timers.
So it's not just that they wouldn't be stupid enough, but also that it probably wouldn't be successful even if they were.
Re: (Score:2)
After all, don't you watch the movies. Every bomb comes with blinky led lights and a red count down timer so it can be easily found. Dont forget the exposed red wire for easy disarmament
Re: (Score:1)
I thought they were thinking someone had noticed a bomb, and was trying to alert for help, rather than a bomber being dumber than a bomber.