Suppose you arrive at the airport too late to board your flight and it has just left the gate. What should you do?
Normal people will kick themselves for being late and then either rebook for a later flight or just go home. But John Charles Robinson had an idea: Call in a bomb threat and have the flight delayed so that he could still board it.
According to a criminal complaint filed June 6 in U.S. District Court in Detroit, the bomb threat that led to a Spirit Airlines flight being evacuated and delayed by six hours at Metro Airport on Thursday, June 5, was a hoax. The person behind the hoax, the complaint says, is 23-year-old John Charles Robinson, of Monroe, who prosecutors say was headed to Los Angeles on Thursday morning when he missed his 7 a.m. Spirit Airlines flight and was told at the gate that he had to rebook.
Robinson, though, had another idea in mind: call in a bomb threat with the hopes of the flight being delayed long enough so that he could still make it on the plane, court records state.
…The investigation found no bombs on the airplane, or in any luggage.
But what authorities would eventually discover was a hoax, with cellphone records leading the FBI to Robinson, who had rebooked a 6:28 p.m. flight to Los Angeles.
But he didn’t make that flight either.
Robinson did arrive at the terminal on time, only FBI agents showed up to interview him.
According to the complaint, Robinson initially denied making any phone calls to Spirit Airlines. Though after he gave consent to have his cellphone searched, the complaint states, the agents discovered the hoax.
Robinson then reportedly fessed up:
“(He) stated that he made the call with the hope that it would delay the flight long enough for him to make it in time so he would not have to take a different flight,” the complaint states.
It boggles the mind that anyone would think that calling in a fake bomb threat was a good solution to being too late for a flight. Apart from seriously inconveniencing all the other passengers and crew on his flight as well as the knock-on delays for other flights, who these days does not know that calling in a fake bomb threat will result in serious trouble with the law?
Note that Robinson is just 23 years old, so file this story under the category of “Young men tend to do really stupid things”.
one word: Entitlement.
When I was that age, my stupid behaviour involved stealing a roadworks night light to have as a back yard decoration for a while, or missing the body language signs a cute partygoer was giving me. These did not result in a potential terrorism charges.
… who these days does not know that calling in a fake bomb threat will result in serious trouble with the law?
Prob’ly not quite as much as a real bomb threat.
Do kids still call in bomb threats to schools when they haven’t studied for their Big Tests?
That’s actually a pretty good idea. He got caught, others inspired by that life hack will make sure not to make the same mistake.
Much like the schools, airports should be swarmed with fake bomb threats so persistently that they eventually give up on their security theater. It’s practically a moral imperative to delay the ICE flights early and often.
Much more usefully, it would reduce the increasing damage aviation is doing to the climate. The security theatre itself actually does reduce that damage somewhat.