Teen Arrested at Orly Airport for Terrorism-Related Wi-Fi Prank on Flight from Morocco

"Improvised explosive device." This Bluetooth identifier related to terrorism cost dearly to a teenager on board a flight from Agadir to Orly. As he was returning from vacation with his parents, he was arrested around 1:30 p.m. on Sunday at Orly airport (Val-de-Marne), then placed in custody at the premises of the air transport gendarmerie (GTA) for "communication of false information compromising the safety of an aircraft in flight."

It all started with a disturbing finding made by a crew member of a Boeing 737 during a flight between Agadir (Morocco) and Paris. On Sunday, around 8:30 a.m., he "came across the identifier ’Improvised Explosive Device’ and alerted his colleagues," reports Le Parisien. Informed of this "unfortunate discovery," Aéroports de Paris contacted the GTA. The alert mobilized dozens of military personnel from the service but also from the surveillance and intervention platoon as well as border police officers. They searched the 153 passengers. "A canine team specialized in explosives detection was also dispatched," says a source close to the investigation.

10:08 a.m.: landing of the plane. "First, we had to check each piece of luggage, the same source resumes. Then we had to unmask the individual who had this identifier. Each time someone was checked, they were then kept waiting in an isolated room. It was very long. But we had no choice." The military’s searches bore fruit. As he was apparently trying to change his identifier, the suspect - a teenager - was unmasked. 1:30 p.m.: end of this operation that lasted nearly three and a half hours.

The teenager is in the habit of using this identifier and would have no connection with a terrorist group. It was therefore a "bad joke."