United 767 turns back over Atlantic after passenger names Bluetooth device 'BOMB'

United Flight 236, a Boeing 767-400ER en route from Newark to Palma de Mallorca, reversed course roughly an hour into its transatlantic crossing on Saturday after crew detected a discoverable Bluetooth device broadcasting the name ‘BOMB.’ A teenage passenger is reported to have set the speaker’s identifier. After repeated PA warnings ordering all Bluetooth off, two devices remained active past the final ultimatum, prompting the crew to squawk 7700 and return to EWR, landing at 8:50 PM after nearly three hours airborne.

Passengers were deplaned with only passports and phones while federal and local law enforcement swept the aircraft. The same airframe eventually operated a replacement flight around 2:30 AM, with travelers re-screened through TSA before reboarding. The incident mirrors a recent United event where a Wi-Fi hotspot named ‘Free Palestine, F Zionists’ triggered a similar threat response.

The episode highlights how casually-set device identifiers in shared RF environments now function as security-relevant signals. Discoverable Bluetooth and Wi-Fi names are visible to anyone scanning nearby, and airlines are treating threatening strings as actionable threats regardless of intent — a reminder that personal device metadata is effectively public broadcast in confined spaces.