Man Arrested After Mentioning "Bomb" On Flight To LI

A 75-year-old man on a flight from Chicago to Long Island was arrested after telling a flight attendant there was a bomb in his carry-on luggage. When the plane landed at MacArthur Airport, a flight attendant asked Draco Slaughter about a bag on an empty seat near him. Slaughter said the bag was his and "there was a bomb in it." However, a police investigation found no explosive devices in Slaughter's luggage, and he was arrested for first-degree falsely reporting an incident.

At his arraignment hearing today in Central Islip, his lawyer told the judge he was innocent. But according to Newsday (subscription required), Slaughter had already told the judge he didn't have a lawyer "before his attorney advised him to remain quiet." The attorney, from Legal Aid, said that Slaughter was innocent of the charges.

Slaughter is being held on $50,000 cash bail or bond, and is due back in court on Friday. Just another reminder that you can't say "bomb" on an airplane.

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By Jaya Saxena in News on June 7, 2010 2:17 PM

Comments [rss]

emgee

One day in 1965 or 1966, my dad drove his brother to Chicago's Midway airport. At the time, my uncle (in his early twenties) was drinking heavily (he's now a very relaxed and healthy recovered alcoholic) and he was a total wild man. He'd be out all night and come home with bruises from fights, that kinda thing. When they got to the airport my dad went with him to the ticket counter. My uncle stumbled up to the counter, slapped his hand down on it hard and shouted, "alright! We're hijacking the next plane outta here and takin' it to Cuba!" The only reaction he got were a few chuckles and some uncomfortable, pitying smiles.

Gothamist_Cynic

I dropped a bomb in the toilet..

jaycjay

These incidents always remind me of a time about 15 years ago when I was travelling for work and was supposed to meet my then-boss at the Dallas airport. We were arriving on separate flights from different cities, but booked on the same connecting flight. He never showed up, and didn't answer his cell... so I came back to New York next to his empty seat.

Turned out that he had left the gate area to use the restroom, and left his carry-on bag there. Used to be a pretty common thing, but this time a security guy took it. So when the boss came back and his bag was gone, he went to the counter to ask about it and was told that security had it. He said, "I hope they don't find the plastic explosives."

Pre-9/11, that just resulted in him being detained and questioned for a couple of hours, though.

Bike Rider

maybe he meant to say there was a stink-bomb in his diapers

youngpro

To quote the first line in the Helen Thomas article here:

'Part of the fun of being really old is you can say outrageous things and everyone thinks it's just adorable.'