Friday 26 May 2017

Flight grounded after passengers spot "Jihadi London" WiFi hotspot

Flight grounded after passengers spot "Jihadi London" WiFi hotspot

Holidaymakers were left stranded after their flight was evacuated because of a mobile hotspot named "Jihadi London".

Hundreds of travellers were due to board a Thomson flight from the Mexican tourist resort of Cancun to Gatwick Airport on Tuesday.

According to Get Surrey, their travel plans were plunged into chaos as the plane was grounded after a passenger spotted the chillingly titled WiFi network name, 


 Carey Middleton who was among those held up as a result said:
 "Everyone had boarded and it was all okay for a while but before we left the stand, the captain announced a passenger had told or shown a crew member a 'hot point' had appeared on their phone saying 'Jihadi London'."He asked that if anyone knew anything about this they should come forward.
"Obviously, nobody did so and after another 30 minutes, we'd been on board about an hour by then with passengers getting more anxious, the police came on board."
"The captain said he understood a few passengers were very concerned and wanted to get off the plane but to bear with him," she said.
"After about another 20 to 30 minutes, he said the company's security team had security checked all passengers and deemed there was no risk.
"By this time, babies and children were crying and they'd had to refuel the aircraft, etc.
"Although the captain said he wouldn't fly unless he was 100% sure it was safe, and he felt it was okay after the extra security checks, some passengers still wanted to leave.
"As they needed to unload their baggage, this then put the crew over their mandatory hours and we were unable to fly."
 Mrs Middleton said the captain told passengers the flight would go ahead the following day [Wednesday] and that there would be extra security in place.They were told they would be put up overnight.
"It was pretty chaotic in the terminal,"she added. "We had to go back through security, reclaim our baggage and then stand around for 30 minutes or so to wait for instructions, with armed police and what looked like army guys with sniffer dogs in the terminal.



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