Couple Delayed Plane 'with Bomb Threat'

[an-124]

Surely these types should be locked up and the key thrown away...




COUPLE DELAYED PLANE 'WITH BOMB THREAT'

(Sky News 10 June)

A US woman and a British man are in custody after allegedly using a bomb threat to delay her flight to London because she needed time to find her passport.

Prosecutors say Hatice Ceylan, an 18-year-old New Jersey student, agreed with Ilyas Savas, 33, of London, to set up the hoax.


It is alleged they conspired to call the Embassy Suites hotel near Philadelphia International Airport to say there were bombs on the flights she was due to take that day to London via Boston.

Both flights were delayed and the passengers were taken off while the planes were searched.

Ceylan and Savas are charged with making a false bomb threat to an airline.

They each face a maximum prison sentence of 10 years and a £300,000 fine.

According to court documents Ceylan bought non-refundable tickets to London before realising her passport was locked in a building to which she had no access.

She was unable to retrieve her passport and never flew to London.

Savas, who is married with two children, phoned the threat from England and then flew to Philadelphia. He and Ceylan were arrested on June 4 as they attempted to redeem the tickets she had been unable to use two days earlier.

Ceylan and Savas were both born in Turkey. Ceylan is a citizen of the United States and Savas is a British citizen.

Ceylan was due to be married to another Turkish man in a union arranged by her parents, said David Kozlow, an attorney for Savas.

[Airbubba]

Yep, one of the oldest tricks in the book...

American Airlines got in trouble after the 1995 Cali crash because they pointed out in their manuals that Hispanics were rumored to do the old bomb threat trick if they were running late (punctuality is not the custom in many latin countries from my experience).

See: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/pilotguide2.html

Of course, you just can't say that in the politically correct U.S. these days, whether or not it may be true.

Here's another recent example of the old "bomb threat to delay the flight" trick:

_____________________________________


Fake SFO Bomb Threat Gets Man Prison Time

Stacy Finz, Chronicle Staff Writer Saturday, May 6, 2000

San Francisco -- A St. Louis man who called in a bogus bomb threat to San Francisco International Airport in hopes of delaying his girlfriend's plane so she could make her flight to Seoul was sentenced yesterday to 10 months in federal prison.

Flavio Mendoza, 35, was convicted of giving false information that endangered an aircraft in flight and faced a maximum penalty of 20 years behind bars.

During yesterday's hearing, Mendoza's attorney called her client's behavior an anomaly and asked the judge to release him, giving him credit for the two months he has already served in jail and two months in a halfway house.

Defense attorney Shawn Halbert said that Mendoza, a student at the University of St. Louis, will pay for his foolish mistake in other ways. She said it will probably cost him deportation back to his native Bolivia with little chance of ever returning to the United States. And, he now faces a lawsuit from the Federal Aviation Administration, she said. ``This has been devastating for him,'' Halbert said. ``He feels like his whole life has been ruined and that everything he has ever done has been wasted.

``He was the one in his family that everyone went to for advice, the one everyone looked up to,'' she said. ``There's no doubt that he'll never do it again. That was the one worst moment he has ever had.''

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Dave Hall fired back, ``That worst moment of his life created the worst moments of the lives of the plane's crew.'' Hall told the court that the plane's pilot learned of the bomb threat when he was 30,000 feet in the air.

``The seriousness of that is something the court has to balance,'' said Hall, who argued in favor of the probation report's recommendation of a 10-month prison term.

[You splitter]

I agree it's an old trick and one that you just cant get away with these days. Quite rightly heftier punishments are being dished out but even these fall short against what is both a dangerous and disruptive stunt.

Without going into too much detail, for obvious security reasons, I have been trained in assessing and reacting to bomb threats. There are many factors put together when looking at threats but if you turn up late for a flight with a warning against it expect to be met by the authorities. It happens too often to be ignored that late pax are responsible for the threats. Obviously if you are just geniuinely late then you have nothing to worry about. But if for one split second you have a moment of stupidness and even think about pulling this one . DONT.

[Bobby Guzzler]

It's happened at our gaf a few times. Always turns out to be the shaven headed fu*kwits we're ferrying on an 'oliday' to Spain, you know the type. :mad:

[Jerricho]

And the b@stards should have an endorsement on their passports "Never to be let on an aircraft again!"

[takenthe5thamendment]

What an excellent idea Jerricho. :ok:

[Jerricho]

Thanks TT5th!

I am bloody serious about this. People who carry on with this sort of crap and our always appreciated air-ragers SHOULD have some sort of endorsement on their passports. Can't play the game like everybody else, you can start walking pal!

[Fester T Adams]

It's happened again! :mad:

This time on a 737-300 on Sunday 22 August, on route direct from Naples to Dublin. A note was found in the loo warning of a bomb on board & the plane was diverted to Lyon where the pax wre evacuated & the plane was searched but given the all clear.

The ordeal began shortly after take off, about an hour into the 12:45pm flight & the emergency landing was made shortly after 2pm. The captain announced that there had been a specific threat made against the plane.

Two people thought to be a married couple from Limerick were taken off the charter aircraft on suspicion of causing the hoax.

When will they ever learn. :rolleyes:

[Earthmover]

Happened to me earlier this year - I won't go into details here, but it was very obvious what was going on.

I heard of a case - in Iceland I think - where a guy did this .. and he was caught. He was the only one to turn up late! So they checked his cellphone account - and guess what......??!! Jeez!

A case of the shallow end of the gene pool methinks.

[B Sousa]

Would love to see them when they get out of Prison in about 10 years...............BUT its the good Old US of A and Im sure they will be considered misguided youth...
Maybe even repatriate them both to Turkey and do time in a Turkish Prison. They would get the true meaning of Prison Life..........

[Evening Star]

No need B Sousa, Jerrico's idea is perfect.

[Jerricho]

I've decided that a simple stamp in the passport isn't the only thing that should be done. The b@stards should have it stamped on their forehead as well.

Seriously, if known British football "toublemakers" can be flagged against travel to mainland Europe for certain games, surely some Aviation Authorities could do the same thing and flag these dickheads. Would bring a stop to it real quick

Sorry to rant on folks, this just about tops the list of "Things that boil my p*ss"