Man Misses Flight In Las Vegas, Calls In Bomb Threat

by Gary Leff

Thursday afternoon JetBlue flight 879 from Las Vegas to Los Angeles was held on the tarmac on arrival and passengers then evacuated because a passenger angry about missing the flight called in a bomb threat.

The two cities are close enough that it already made it to LA before action was taken. The pilots of the flight knew nothing about the threat until arrival. When the plane was isolated on the tarmac, the pilots were told they couldn’t be told the reason why.

  • A man had missed the flight in Las Vegas
  • He became angry and claimed to have had luggage already on the plane that might contain a bomb
  • It’s not clear how the man arrived at the airport early enough to check his bag, but managed to miss the flight.

The aircraft was searched for two hours before the plane and its luggage was cleared.

Before the pandemic a student called in a bomb threat to keep their parents from visiting at university. Their flight turned around. A man called in a report that his wife was a suicide bomber to keep her from leaving him. She couldn’t have been happier with him after that. Another man called in a bomb threat as part of an effort to get a flight attendant’s attention to ask her out.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

More articles by Gary Leff »

Comments

  2. We talk about road rage, I guess this is flight rage? Stupidity abounds! He probably got drunk or was spending the last of his savings at the one-armed bandit in the terminal. Now he gets to spend his money on lawyers and sit to think about what he did wrong for a while.

  3. Something about Vegas.

    Two weeks ago from CLT to LAS, a guy was yelling at the gate agent simply because he wanted to hurry up and leave. She was not happy with him. When she called group 1 (my group) he tried to cut in line with his group 7 boarding pass. The GA told him to get out of line and she was going to have to “give him a talk”.

    This guy replied to her with “well… I hope this plane CRASHES!!”

    He never made it onto the plane and I’m guessing he got arrested. But seriously, do people think before they speak anymore?

  4. @David Stone. Waylon Jennings made that comment to Buddy Holly before he died in a plane crash. He said they always made joking comments to each other. Waylon Jennings gave up his seat on the plane. Buddy Holly said I hope you freeze your behind off on that bus. Waylon Jennings said I hope your old plane crashes. He said oh my gosh. I felt guilty over that for years. I wonder what this guy thought talking about a bomb would accomplish? It wouldn’t get him on that flight. Probably no other flight either.

  5. Why, oh why do people insist on doing stupid things like calling in bomb threats when they miss their flights? Every time I lower my expectations about passengers, they push them even lower.

  7. My company had to evacuate a building a few times for bomb threats. Turns out it was a call center employee who didn’t want to go back to work after lunch breaks and called in the threat from a nearby strip mall.

  8. This is trash t.v. On the internet.
    No thanks.
    Off to OMAAT.
    AGAIN.

  9. I really do believe that anyone who calls in a bomb threat to an aircraft ought to “earn” a lifetime ban for flying. That would be aside from any time in prison, of course.

  10. It’s unclear how a person who had time to check a bag missed boarding? Count all the places alcohol can be purchased in the terminal.

Comments are closed.