Bomb threat briefly shuts Hobby

Houston Chronicle ^ | Aug. 6, 2005 | ZEKE MINAYA and ANNE MARIE KILDAY

[Shawndell Green]

Note that held flight for 3 hours likely was left by a prankster, officials say

Authorities said a written bomb threat that grounded a Southwest Airlines plane Friday and briefly shut down operations at Hobby Airport appeared to be a hoax that could have been left on the aircraft weeks ago.

Investigators "were able to determine that there was no terrorist threat to the airplane or passengers," FBI spokesman Al Tribble said.

The obvious relief of the passengers was tempered somewhat by their being forced to remain on the plane for an hour while authorities investigated the purported threat.

"When we landed, they told us there was a bomb on the plane," Houstonian Torrey Leger said. "It was like a bubblegum wrapper where somebody wrote there was bomb on the plane. What kind of disturbed me was, they thought there was a bomb on the plane and they left us sitting there for about an hour. Nobody seemed to have a procedure in place for when something like this happens."

Etta McClellan, of Friendswood, said most of her fellow passengers were frustrated by having to sit on the plane for as long as they did.

"Then we kind of figured, if there really was a bomb, they would have gotten us off real fast," McClellan said. "The longer we sat there, we thought they were pretty sure it was a hoax."

After about an hour, she said, passengers had started to relax when uniformed Houston police officers boarded the plane.

"That actually made us a little more tense," she said, "because when the police came, we began to realize the seriousness of it all."

Tribble said that even though authorities had determined the threat was bogus, the passengers were kept on the plane so lawmen could conduct a "logical investigation."

"You want to know who wrote the note, because this could happen again," he said.

Tribble said a passenger found the bomb threat note during the flight from Dallas to Houston and gave it to a flight attendant. The passenger, a woman traveling with two children, did not fit the criminal profile in such situations, which Tribble said was an early indication the threat might not have been real. Investigators do not know who wrote the note and Tribble said it "could have been on the plane for weeks."

Southwest Flight 21 originated in Dallas and was to continue on to Corpus Christi after a planned stop at about 12:30 p.m. in Houston. It landed in Houston with 136 passengers on board.

A Southwest spokeswoman said authorities questioned crew members before deciding to release the passengers.

The passengers were kept on the plane for an hour and inside the terminal for another two hours while bomb-detecting dogs checked over the plane and authorities questioned the crew and some passengers.

Houston Police Lt. Robert Manzo said the purported threat prompted authorities to close airport operations from about 12:20 to 12:40 p.m.

But it was not until about 4:30 p.m. that passengers from the grounded flight began to stream through the gates and greeted those waiting for them.

Elizbeth Hill, 18, said she kept calm by reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the latest installment in the series about a boy wizard.

"I wasn't that worried," she said.

Christy Barksdale, of Houston, was the last passenger off the plane.

She called the experience frustrating, but said Southwest tried to make the passengers comfortable while they were held in the terminal for about two hours.

"They were doing all that they could," Barksdale said. "They were giving us pizza, coffee, drinks and I appreciated that. Now, I'm ready for this to be over."

About 30 passengers bound for Corpus Christi aboard Flight 21 returned to the plane and left Hobby about 5 p.m., Southwest spokeswoman Whitney Eichinger said.

Three passengers opted not to continue to Corpus Christi because the delay forced them to miss events there, Eichinger said.

McClellan said she hoped authorities find the person who wrote the threat.

"It was not a funny joke," she said.

[Shawndell Green]

I hope the lady who gave the note to the stewardess enjoyed her delay.