Passengers aboard a busy plane were ordered off the aircraft thanks to a chilling threat made on someone’s mobile phone.

The flight, from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas to Charlotte, North Carolina, was grounded, with the pilot blaming an “administrative issue”. However authorities later revealed someone had renamed their Wi-Fi hotspot There is a Bomb On The Flight.

Unimpressed, police ordered the culprit to come forward and when no one came forward, ordered everybody off the plane. Passenger Bruce Steen, 63, told ABC police said: “If this is a joke, please raise your hand now, because we can deal with the practical joke differently than if this, if we have to do a full blown investigation of what’s going on here.”

Once everyone was taken off the plane they were held in a cordoned off area as investigations went on. As their bags were offloaded and checked on the tarmac, they were forced to go back through security.

Another passenger on the American Airlines flight reported seeing several sniffer dogs as well as explosive experts. They told View From The Wing: “There were also at minimum 8 [police] officers as well as around 20 TSA agents hanging around the gate.”

Another said: “Several cops boarded the plane and announced someone was playing a ‘prank.’ The prank being someone on board had renamed their hotspot to ‘I have a bomb.’

“Cue the groaning from the entire..plane when the cop announced this. Then the cop gave the opportunity for the individual to come clean…

“Thus the deplaning procedure began after the cops went down the aisle asking to see everyone’s devices and their hotspot settings. After that, we all un-boarded and waited in the gate (which had been cordoned off and surrounded by agents). We were told we then had to go through screening again so all of us were paraded through the airport in a long a** conga line with agents flanking us on both sides.”

After a wait of more than four hours, the passengers were allowed back aboard. A Transportation Security Administration spokesperson said: “All passengers and their checked baggage were rescreened.”

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