A Southwest Airlines jet was evacuated at an airport in the Los Angeles region on Friday after a passenger was reportedly heard to say the word ”bomb”, prompting a security alert, authorities said.
The Southwest flight had been taxiing to takeoff at Bob Hope airport in Burbank, California when the evacuation was ordered, said an airport spokesperson.
”This incident is related to a remark by a passenger,” airport spokesperson Victor Gill told local television.
Authorities later gave a security green light.
”A Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 that had been evacuated on a taxiway at Bob Hope Airport due to a possible bomb threat has been cleared as of 6.20pm (2.20am GMT),” airport authorities said in a statement.
”All 137 passengers were evacuated and five young men on the plane were initially taken into police custody. Four were subsequently released and one man, aged 25, remains in custody,” it added.
Also, ”two bomb dogs were brought to the scene from Los Angeles police department and LAX police department to aid in the inspection of the aircraft, and that inspection is now concluded,” the statement said.
A woman passenger on board the flight told KCAL9 television she had heard a male passenger, who she said had been drinking alcohol, say the word ”bomb”, prompting the security scare and the plane’s evacuation.
”We were on the plane going to Las Vegas, there was a group of 25, somebody among them said something inappropriate,” the woman, identified as Carol, told KCAL9.
”He said the B word. It was a male, he was drunk. We heard the word. We were ready to take off, but a few minutes later the marshals were on the airplane,” she said.
The incident comes just days after US air marshals shot and killed an unarmed man amid confusing scenes on a plane at Miami airport.
Officials said that 44-year-old Rigoberto Alpizar had announced he was carrying a bomb just before he was shot as he ran off the American Airlines jet in Miami airport. – AFP
