Man Tries to Delay Flight by Reporting Fake Bomb Threat

Rashidul Islam was running late to the airport trying to catch a flight from London to Marrakech to see his fiancée. When the 32-year old London man realized he wouldn’t make it to Gatwick Airport in time, he did what he felt was best.

He called in a fake bomb threat to delay the flight.

“EasyJet flight 8897 leaves in 40 minutes … There may be a bomb on the plane, you need to delay it, you need to stop it now,” Islam told the operator, according to the Sussex Police.

Just one problem.

Islam phoned in the threat from his own cell phone.

So as passengers and crew on the flight were evacuated and held in a gate room as authorities investigated, Islam arrived and attempted to check in.

When police realized his cell number matched the number from the anonymous threat, he was taken into custody and admitted to making the fake threat, police said.

“While the defendant expressed remorse, there is no excuse for his actions that day and he has been sentenced accordingly,” Sussex Police Detective Constable Stephen Trott said in a statement.

The flight eventually took off three hours after its initial departure time.