FBI: Delta Flight Attendant’s Story About Suspicious Package That Forced Emergency Landing Was A Hoax

(Quinn Dombrowski)

A flight attendant who reported a suspicious package on a Delta Air Lines flight, prompting the plane to make an emergency landing last week in North Dakota, made the whole thing up, the FBI says, and has been charged with interfering with the operation of an aircraft and communicating false information.

According to an FBI affidavit, the attendant admitted that he’d stuffed a bag with towels, and then later reported it as a suspicious package, saying it made beeping noises, reports the Associated Press.

The SkyWest Airlines-operated flight traveling was traveling from Minnesota when it was forced to make an emergency landing, and Dickinson Airport was temporarily shut down for its arrival.

SkyWest says the flight attendant has been placed on administrative leave pending a police investigation. He’s scheduled to appear in court today.

This isn’t the first time he’s apparently played a game of “Let’s Pretend” while on duty: an FBI agent says in court documents that he also admitted to making up a bomb threat on a July 7 flight from Charlottesville, VA to Chicago. That flight returned to Charlottesville.

FBI: Flight attendant created hoax forcing emergency landing [Associated Press]
Flight attendant accused of hoax in North Dakota allegedly behind similar incident in Virginia [Associated Press]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist