Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Joe Buvid
What: Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 en route from Seattle to Oakland
Where: Oakland
When: Sept 19, 2011
Who: 126 passengers, 6 crew
Why: While passengers were winging it from Seattle, a handwritten bomb threat note threatening the Oakland flight was found in an airport bookstore in San Francisco International Airport.
The flight landed at Oakland as planned—twenty minutes early, due to some background aviation networking. The fake crisis brought in some real FBI agents and real bomb sniffing dogs who got everyone out of the plane (and screened); and the plane was sent to an isolated location to (fortunately, not) blow up. No bomb was found.
A false report or threat of a bomb or harmful device is punishable by up to four years in prison, a $2,000 fine plus reimbursement of costs to government.
Sent from 37 thousand feet headed to NY
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