Bomb joke backfires, grounds plane (NYC to Fort Lauderdale)

CNN ^ | September 14, 2002 Posted: 6:36 PM EDT (2236 GMT) | CNN Producer Laura Dolan contributed to this report.

[weegee]

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A Delta Air Lines flight about to leave LaGuardia Airport for Fort Lauderdale Saturday afternoon returned to the gate after a passenger told a flight attendant he had brought a bomb onboard, police said.

Passengers were taken off the plane and the man was arrested, said Port Authority Police Sgt. John O'Donnell. A search of the man's luggage and the plane, with at least one bomb-sniffing dog, turned up no explosives, O'Donnell said.

[cinFLA]

Now that is a bomb joke.

How do you know when a bomb joke is NOT funny?

When it "bombs".

[HairOfTheDog]

I apsolutely support checking out every threat too, but I have to wonder if they feel a bit silly blowing up brown paper bags because they are reluctant to look inside.... But on the other hand, I am not in their shoes, so I should not profess to know which chances they should take.

[TexRef]

Here's a larger version (just did a search for "bombsquard.jpg" on Google!) : http://sandbox.megabit.org/~castro/fotos/Fun/imagepages/image2.htm