Passenger imprisoned for joking about a bomb on board a plane

Diario SUR Digital:

The passenger who joked about the existence of some type of explosives on board a Danish Sterling aeroplane en route between Stockholm and Malaga was sent to prison accused of a crime against public security. It was something which had turned out to be a false alarm and a joke in bad taste.

The judge ordered that the 20 year old Swedish man of Maghrebi origin (K.A.R.) be imprisoned in Alhaurín de la Torre. The young man was questioned, along with two other people, following the landing of the plane at Malaga airport, where everyone was on alert because of the bomb threat.

Last Saturday, the alarm was raised after the captain of Danish flight Sterling 705 called the head office of the company at 08:20 to report that a passenger had told one of the cabin crew that he had carried a bomb onto the plane. Following the call, the airport was on local alert and at 09:15 emergency procedures were activated and fire services, medical services, the control tower and the state security forces were called upon. According to sources, after having created the panic, K.A.R. woke his two sleeping travelling companions to tell them that he had done “something bad”.

The flight, carrying 94 passengers, then landed at 11:38 and headed towards the loading platform which is situated a kilometre from the runway. It arrived escorted by medical and fire service vehicles as well as state security forces headed by explosives experts.

Civil guards boarded the plane and asked the passengers, who by then were aware that something was wrong, to disembark. The three suspects were taken to the back of the plane while the police and dogs checked the cabin and the hold.

The other passengers identified themselves in an isolated room in terminal one while their luggage was scanned for explosives. After around two hours, they were able to leave the airport building and continue on their journeys.

Malaga airport deactivated the security alert at 12:45 after ensuring that it was a false alarm and then the suspects were handed over to the judicial authorities who decided that the young man be sent to prison.

According to Aena, the company which manages the airport services, the incident did not affect passengers on any other flight nor did it affect arrival and departure operations. The airport also emphasised that the emergency procedures had functioned effectively and efficiently.

Let's hope this joker learns an important lesson from this experience. Terrorism is nothing to joke about.