No one has ever been so eager to get on a Spirit Airlines flight.
A passenger called in a bomb threat to the flight company as part of a bungled attempt to get revenge for not being allowed to board a plane in Michigan, according to the United States Attorney’s Office.
Charles Robinson, 23, had missed his chance to board the airline’s Flight 2145 in Detroit — and then got into an argument with the customer service agents when they wouldn’t let him board late, according to officials.
He was told at the gate that he needed to rebook, according to the United States Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Michigan.
Robinson then allegedly called in a bomb threat for his missed flight in a misguided attempt at revenge at 6:45 a.m., even going so far as to invent a bomber and giving authorities a detailed description of what he looked like, according to prosecutors.
The passengers who had boarded the flight needed to deplane and the authorities brought in bomb sniffing dogs to look for explosives, prosecutors said.
“No American wants to hear the words ‘bomb’ and ‘airplane’ in the same sentence,” U.S. Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon, Jr. said in a press release. “Making this kind of threat undermines our collective sense of security and wastes valuable law enforcement resources.”
The FBI arrested Robinson at the airport when he tried to board another flight to Los Angeles, prosecutors said. Robinson, of Monroe, Michigan, was arrested on a criminal complaint for reporting a fake bomb threat for a flight, according to federal prosecutors.
During the call reporting the fake bomb threat, Robinson allegedly said he was calling about Flight 2145 because he had information about that flight, according to prosecutors.
“There’s gonna be someone who’s gonna try to blow up the airport,” he said, according to prosecutors. “There’s gonna be someone that’s gonna try to blow up that flight, 2145.”
After giving a description of the make-believe bomber, he then added: “They’re going to be carrying a bomb through the TSA,” he said, according to prosecutors. “They’re still threatening to do it, they’re still attempting to do it, they said it’s not going to be able to be detected. Please don’t let that flight board.”
Robinson appeared in federal court in Detroit Friday afternoon and was released on bond, according to prosecutors. His next court appearance will be on June 27 for a preliminary examination.
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