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View Full Version : Bomb joke backfires, grounds DAL plane in KLGA


Airbubba
15th Sep 2002, 00:55
Here we go again....

From the "I don't believe I'd a told that one" department:
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Bomb joke backfires, grounds plane

September 14, 2002 Posted: 6:36 PM EDT (2236 GMT)

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A Delta Air Lines flight about to leave LaGuardia Airport for Fort Lauderdale Saturday afternoon returned to the gate after a passenger told a flight attendant he had brought a bomb onboard, police said.

Passengers were taken off the plane and the man was arrested, said Port Authority Police Sgt. John O'Donnell. A search of the man's luggage and the plane, with at least one bomb-sniffing dog, turned up no explosives, O'Donnell said.

Flight 1503 was scheduled to leave at 3:30 p.m. Saturday when a flight attendant asked the male passenger to take off some electronic equipment he was using. The man then said, "There's a bomb in my bag in the overhead compartment," O'Donnell said.

Port Authority police have not released the passenger's name.

Fellow passenger Karla Guadamuz told CNN the man may have been joking about having a bomb. She said she witnessed the arrest and heard him say about the bomb comment, "I shouldn't have said that."

The man was about 6 feet tall, heavy set, with olive skin and dark hair. She said he had no foreign accent.

Guadamuz says about 100 passengers were on the plane.

According to Delta's Web site, the flight took off shortly after 5 p.m. and was due in Fort Lauderdale shortly after 8 p.m.

Haul By Cable
15th Sep 2002, 09:16
... not enough chlorine in the gene pool? :rolleyes:

Kalium Chloride
15th Sep 2002, 09:24
Having grown used to the stupidity levels to which these idiots can sink I think I'm now more astonished that he believed he was making an original wisecrack.

Did he really think he was the first passenger to make the "by the way I've got a bomb" joke?

How sad. If I'd been travelling with him I think I'd have been even more embarrassed by his pathetic attempt at humour than by the subsequent security alert. :rolleyes:

TE RANGI
15th Sep 2002, 09:47
It's all typical American sense of humour.

126.9
15th Sep 2002, 10:28
Well actually it's not American sense of humor! It's just "plane" stupidity. I remember a few years ago; Bishop Desmond Tutu's son was arrested for the same wise-crack. Having done his time a while later, he found that the second time he joked about his bomb the judge was even less impressed. Funny old thin that! :)

lomapaseo
15th Sep 2002, 11:22
I am impressed by the statistics.

I don't believe that there is a single case where this comment turned out to be true. However it does seem to get results, intended or not. Of course I don't know how often it is ignored

28thJuly2001
15th Sep 2002, 14:13
I shouldnt think it is ever ignored.
If I heard a passenger comment that he had a bomb in his case and the steward/check-in/security ignored him then I would make sure that the employee is an ex-employee rather quickly.

Walt,,