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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWoman misses flight, falsely claims bomb on plane at Florida
A Chicago woman falsely claimed a bomb was on a plane at a South Florida airport after missing her flight, authorities said.
The 46-year-old woman was arrested Monday night at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and charged with falsely reporting a bomb, explosive or weapon of mass destruction, according to a Broward Sheriff's Office news release.
Airline employees told responding deputies that the woman had stated that a bomb was in her checked-in luggage that was aboard a plane, officials said. She made the claim after workers told her that she and her party had arrived too late to board the plane, detectives said.
The plane was already taxiing out to the runway but had not taken off when it was rerouted. Passengers were evacuated, and the plane was searched. No explosives were found, officials said.
https://www.clickorlando.com/news/national/2021/09/07/sheriff-woman-missed-flight-and-falsely-said-bomb-on-plane/
Blue Owl
(49,913 posts)MLAA
(17,163 posts)MineralMan
(146,192 posts)Not particularly bright, I think.
I suppose she thought she'd just say she was lying about the bomb when the plane came back to the gate and board her flight. Defective thinking. You don't even want to use the word "bomb" anywhere in an airport. Folks don't find it amusing.
malaise
(267,800 posts)Daily I thank my parents and grandparents for drumming into our brains the reality that every decision you make has consequences. How fucking dumb is this woman.
MineralMan
(146,192 posts)"Oh, noes...I didn't make it to the gate in time."
"I never should have stood in that Starbucks line to get a latte to take on the plane."
"What will I do? My luggage is already on there, and there's not another plane until late tonight."
Deep pondering...
"Aha! I'll tell the gate person that there's a bomb in my luggage. The plane won't take off and they'll come back to the gate."
"Then, I'll tell the gate person I was just joking, and she'll let me board the plane."
"Problem solved. I get to get on the plane and my luggage will be on the conveyor."
"Perfect..."
Later...
"But officer, I was just joking. Do I look like someone who would put a bomb on a plane?"
"Why are you putting handcuffs on me?"
"NO! I am definitely not going to jail! I'm going home to Chicago on that plane!"
"Let me go right now! You have no idea how many really important people I know!"
"NO! I am not getting into a police car! Let me go!"
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)her becoming enraged and yelling obscenities at the employees. Though it seems very likely her first motive was an impulse to stop the plane, wondering if there might also be an element of getting back at a world and airline that are both literally and figuratively moving on in spite of her.
Lol, reportedly the same day a man who wanted off a plane en route cross country growled and chewed at his mask. He got his wish also.
Link to tweet
MineralMan
(146,192 posts)It's a lot of angry, frustrated people out there. Some of them just can't contain themselves. I've been staying off planes for quite a while now.
It's not new, though, of course. There have always been self-important passengers who just don't get it that they're not the only passenger that airline is flying somewhere that day.
I remember one trip, many years ago. I was flying from Fresno, CA to Las Vegas to go to a trade show. It was a little turboprop feeder airline plane, with some airline that was an offshoot of American Airlines. America West or something like that. So, I'm sitting in the gate area waiting to board. I was watching out the window, where I could see the plane I'd be on. A crew came up in a lift truck and some guys removed the cowling from one engine and were gathered around having one of those "You think it'll be OK" conversations.
"Oh, crap," I thought. This is going to take a while. About then, an announcement from the gate agent could be heard. "There's going to be a delay on Flight nnn to Las Vegas for a maintenance issue. We'll let you know more soon."
No sooner than she had finished, some portly middle-aged guy in a suit walked up to the gate counter and started yelling at the person at the gate. "I ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO BE IN VEGAS BY 3 PM. I HAVE A VERY IMPORTANT MEETING! YOU'D BETTER SPEED UP THIS DELAY RIGHT NOW."
The 20-something gate attendant told him she wasn't sure when the problem would be fixed, but she'd let everyone know.
"THAT'S COMPLETELY UNSATISFACTORY! I NEED TO TALK TO SOMEONE WHO KNOWS WHAT THEY ARE DOING RIGHT NOW! DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM? GET SOMEONE OVER HERE IMMEDIATELY!" His voice just kept getting louder and louder and his face redder and redder.
I had had enough, so I walked up, put myself between him and the gate desk. I coldly said, "I know exactly who you are: an asshole who thinks he is more important than everyone else. Leave that gate person alone, go sit down, and shut up. They're working on the plane right outside of the window there. Go watch them and stop yelling at people."
He looked like he was about to wind up and hit me, so I gave him my best murderous stare and he walked off mumbling to himself.
The flight got canceled. So, I went to the car rental counter, rented a car and drove the 4.5 hours to Vegas.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)Sounds like you made really good time on those desert highways. I remember those days, especially NV with no speed limit.
Over a few decades I've witnessed three people consumed with violent rage in public, but what's happening now among strong conservatives, after several decades of always losing to frightening and angering change, is a fascinating phenomenon. And dangerous, of course.
Fareed Zakariah said the Republicans need to have a nervous breakdown (finish having it!) and get therapy to help them come to terms with the modern world.
At this point, though, these people are civil disorder visibly eager to become a violent mob.
malaise
(267,800 posts)Don't you see my lovely weekend tan?
MineralMan
(146,192 posts)seem to be full of idiots, for some reason. I'm not sure why, but I've noticed that many times. I don't fly around as much as I used to, but I've run into some amazingly stupid people who were traveling on some sort of vacation trip.
When my wife and I were flying down to the Mexican Riviera before we were married to try a week of being together 24 hours a day, there was some woman in the row in front of me who kept trying, over and over again, to recline her coach seat further than it would go. She was bouncing the seat back with enough force to make me wonder if it would break and I'd have her in my lap.
After about 5 minutes, I leaned forward and said, "You know, that's as far back as the seat will go. Nothing you do will change that, so please stop."
She responded, "Well, I'm more of a First Class person and I want to recline some more."
"And yet," I said, "There you are, sitting in coach like the rest of us. Please stop."
She said something ugly and punched the flight attendant button. When the flight attendant came to her row, she started in on a diatribe about the lousy service and accommodations. The flight attendant dramatically rolled her eyes at the woman and said, "You're in coach, Ma'am. Perhaps next time you'll pay for a First Class seat? The seat you're in won't recline any further here."
malaise
(267,800 posts)LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)If we're relying on anecdote rather than data, my last five flights have been wholly without drama or adventure.
Not even the merest whiff of displeasure with passengers wearing outfits I dislike compelling me to move to better avoid annoyance.
__@^
Response to MineralMan (Reply #12)
malaise This message was self-deleted by its author.
Wingus Dingus
(8,049 posts)It's not going to get her on that plane or the next one.
MissMillie
(38,452 posts)"entitlement"
mitch96
(13,817 posts)Just being here does it... I know... I LIVE HERE!!
M
Hassin Bin Sober
(26,272 posts)Throck
(2,520 posts)exboyfil
(17,857 posts)As Forrest Gump's principal says, "Your mom really cares about your education".
malaise
(267,800 posts)Lock her up!
Response to left-of-center2012 (Original post)
malaise This message was self-deleted by its author.
Maru Kitteh
(28,303 posts)It's all I can come up with.
Ms. Toad
(33,915 posts)When you arrive late for your flight, they don't accept your luggage. Her luggage would still have been in her hot little fist - not on the plane without her.
I've been on several flights in the last half-dozen years when flights were delayed because they had to retrieve the luggage of people whose luggage was checked, but they didn't arrive at the gate. So even if she was just dawdling around the airport, her luggage would have been pulled when she didn't show up in time.
lame54
(35,134 posts)That's guaranteed to keep her off ALL flights
Ms. Toad
(33,915 posts)if they were following the rules.
EVEN when you are just transferrring from one flight to another they remove bags if you don't make the flight. The reason is to remove the possiblity that someone will decide to blow up a plane (without committing suicide) by sending luggages with a bomb on it as checked luggage but skip the flight so they don't blow themselves up.
left-of-center2012
(34,195 posts)However googling finds this:
Introduced in the 1980s in response to serious attacks from terrorists hiding bombs in unaccompanied bags, reconciliation rules have required that unaccompanied bags are to be removed from planes if a passenger fails to show up to the gate.
https://www.smithsdetection.com/insight/aviation/unaccompanied-baggage-inspection/
So weird that in her case, the plane took off.
Ms. Toad
(33,915 posts)What usually happens is that you hear them paging and paging for a passenger who didn't show up, then the pilot comes on the plan intercom and announces that we will be slightly delayed while they remove unaccompanied luggage from the plane.
I may be more aware of it than a lot of people, since I was consulted about draftinga patent application that would have required unaccompanied luggage to be flown about the time the rules went into effect. The job fell through at least in part because the rule change made the business venture associated with the patent a non-starter.
ProfessorGAC
(64,413 posts)That's been the case for a long time.
A while back, I was on a flight from Philly, back to Chicago. Pulled away from gate maybe a hundred feet. Reverse course. Back to gate.
The manifest showed a passenger not on the plane had checked luggage.
Crew is taking suitcase off when, wouldn't you know it, door opens & the guy got there. So, luggage back on plane & he's seated. He got called plenty of names.
He was BLASTED! He lost track of time drinking in the terminal bar.
There were about 180 people on the plane. At least 150 called him an idiot!
I'm thinking this was late 90s.
Demovictory9
(32,320 posts)lpbk2713
(42,696 posts)I hope to hell she is billed for all the expenses involved.