{"id":32581,"date":"2026-06-01T01:20:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T01:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/32581\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T01:20:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T01:20:14","slug":"united-airlines-flight-diverts-back-to-newark-after-bluetooth-devices-name-sparks-security-scare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/32581\/","title":{"rendered":"United Airlines flight diverts back to Newark after Bluetooth device&#8217;s name sparks security scare"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Spain-bound United Airlines flight out of Newark turned around mid-flight on Saturday because a teenager named his Fitbit \u201cbomb\u201d and it popped up on available Bluetooth devices, officials and sources said.<\/p>\n<p>The plane took off from Newark Liberty International Airport at about 6 p.m., but landed back at Newark by roughly 9:30 p.m after security was flagged to inspect a suspicious Bluetooth device onboard that showed up as \u201cbomb,\u201d sources told The Post.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The flight was turned around and landed back in Newark late Saturday after passengers were directed to turn off their devices and the alarming name remained online.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39542074\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/staffing-shortage-tied-partial-department-124263539.jpg\" alt=\"Three United Airlines airplanes parked at Newark Liberty International Airport's Terminal C.\" class=\"wp-image-39542074\"  \/>A Spain-bound United Airlines flight out of Newark turned around mid-flight on Saturday. Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Post<\/p>\n<p>It was later determined that the device was a name for a Fitbit owned by a 16-year-old on board.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio:0.50488281;display:block\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39542078\" width=\"298\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/bluetooth-device-caused-flights-return-129335504.jpg\" alt=\"Screenshot from Flightradar24 showing United flight UA236 on a map, flying from New York (EWR), making a U-turn over the Atlantic Ocean, with flight details like altitude, speed, and aircraft type.\" class=\"wp-image-39542078\"  \/>About four hours into an eight-hour flight, security was flagged to inspect a suspicious Bluetooth device with a \u201ccertain four-letter word,\u201d according to The Guardian. Flightradar24<\/p>\n<p>Passengers had to evacuate as Port Authority police swept the aircraft. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers re-screened passengers before boarding again.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnited flight 236 from Newark to Palma De Mallorca, Spain safely returned to Newark to address a potential security concern,\u201d a United spokesperson said on Sunday. \u201cThe flight continued on to Palma De Mallorca with a new crew.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The airline directed further inquiries to local authorities.<\/p>\n<p>The unidentified teen has not been hit with any local charges, but the FBI is now investigating the situation, sources said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Spain-bound United Airlines flight out of Newark turned around mid-flight on Saturday because a teenager named his&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[15852,15942,1201,15943,17,15944,738],"class_list":["post-32581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-bluetooth","tag-bomb-scares","tag-metro","tag-newark-airport","tag-spain","tag-tsa","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}