Bomb threat holds up flight (Area travelers detained after note discovery: SWA Flt 21)

Corpus Christi Caller-Times ^ | Jaime Powell and Icess Fernandez

[Paleo Conservative]

Travelers bound for Corpus Christi were detained in Houston for hours Friday after a passenger found a note claiming there was a bomb onboard their Southwest Airlines flight.

The passenger alerted the crew about the note, prompting the plane to land at an isolated part of Hobby Airport, authorities said.

No one was injured, and bomb-sniffing dogs found no evidence of explosives on the plane, said Andrea McCauley, spokeswoman with the Transportation Security Administration.

That was good news for Belia Segura of Harlingen, who was waiting anxiously for the arrival of her granddaughter Elizabeth Rodriguez, 16, at Corpus Christi International Airport.

"It's only the second time she has flown," Segura said. "She lives in Midland and she was already nervous about flying."

The plane finally made it to Corpus Christi just before 6 p.m., after law enforcement agencies in Houston had evacuated the passengers so they could be interviewed and re-screened by security.

Joe and Ruth Wirsching, waiting in an airport restaurant during the ordeal, got regular cell phone updates from their granddaughter Elizabeth Kreher, 20, who was stranded in Houston.

Kreher told the Wirschings that when the plane landed in Houston, security personnel emptied it, saying something about a note and a bomb. She was not sure when they would get to Corpus Christi.

FBI spokesman Al Tribble, who interviewed the three passengers who saw the note, said he didn't have the exact wording of the note, but "it definitely announced there's a bomb on the plane."

The passenger found the note in the seat pocket in front of his seat on the flight from Dallas to Houston and then on to Corpus Christi.

It was unclear whether the note was written on that flight or had been left by a passenger on a previous flight, Tribble said.

Passengers who underwent the ordeal in Houston said the plane wasn't allowed to park in the terminal and had to stay on the runway. They were told before landing there was a minor problem and that it was a regular procedure.

The plane sat on the tarmac for more than an hour while airport and police authorities searched it. Passengers were then taken off the plane one by one and were only allowed to take their identification and medicine off the plane, passengers said.

According to passengers, they were then taken by bus to the terminal, where they waited four hours before being given the all clear to continue their flight.

Michelle Winterbottom, 19, from Orange Grove, was returning from visiting friends in Dallas. She said the inconvenience wasn't that bad.

"It was pretty weird," she said. "I was wondering what was going on."

Some passengers weren't so patient.

Macon Clark, 66, from Amarillo, was on his way to Corpus Christi for a wedding. Clark said he didn't understand why passengers had to stay on the plane for more than an hour.

"If there's a bomb on the plane, get us off the plane," he said. "Catch the dude later."

Attorney Barry Greve of Dallas
works on his laptop while
waiting for his flight at the
Corpus Christi International
Airport on Friday. Greve and
others waited after a Southwest
plane was grounded in Houston
following the discovery of a
bomb-threat note

Key Villareal (left) talks with her
mother, Bea Villareal, after her
flight was delayed because of a
bomb threat.

[Paleo Conservative]

That last passenger is right. If there was a possibility of a bomb on the plane, why were they not taken off the plane as quickly as possible?

[Thebaddog]

Second note in two days. Somethings afoot.

[Paleo Conservative]

If you want on or off my aerospace ping list, please contact me by Freep mail not by posting to this thread.

[ladyinred]

They would have had a real problem keeping me on that plane. What kind of nuts are running this anyway?

[Paleo Conservative]

This is the local Corpus Christi fishwrap's account of yesterday's hoax bomb threat. They don't publish stories till the next issue, so it didn't come out till this morning.

[cmsgop]

"If there's a bomb on the plane, get us off the plane," he said. "Catch the dude later."

Gosh So True, I had a Bomb threat on my 747 flight from LAX To Dullas.

[Thebaddog]

No poop. What a waste of bytes.

[Textide]

All I can think of is the off chance that the bomb could be triggered by opening the doors or just turning a handle. Would imagine that bomb crews scoured the outside pretty good for that hour.

[Boundless]

An arrest in this case:
Suspect Arrested In SWA Bomb Threat

[Paleo Conservative]

Thanks, I posted a new thread about the arrest.

Man arrested in Southwest bomb prank