On Monday, October 2nd, a 53-year-old man’s joke about having explosives in his suitcase caused a significant disturbance and a four-hour delay for a LATAM flight departing from Guarulhos International Airport, São Paulo, heading to Teresina, Piauí.
The incident
According to passengers who witnessed the incident, the comment was made while cabin crew were assisting the passenger with his luggage. Obviously, the joke didn’t land, causing panic among other passengers.
After cabin crew alerted airport police, the aircraft was moved to a remote section of the airport where the 53-year-old man accused of making the joke was arrested by federal police. All passengers were then removed from the plane in groups of five and luggage was searched for explosives. Thankfully, nothing illicit was found.
After four hours, passengers were reboarded and the flight departed at 7:40 PM, reaching Teresina around 10:30 PM, about four and a half hours later than scheduled.
A video shows flight attendants announcing that passengers would be deplaned and luggage searched.
The story was first reported by Brazilian online newspaper, Metrópoles.
And the award for mind-boggling stupidity goes to…
If there’s one rule of air travel, it’s that you don’t loudly joke about bringing explosives on a plane. If there’s one cardinal rule of air travel, it’s that you don’t loudly joke about bringing explosives on a plane with your flight attendant.
At 53 years old, this guy should’ve known better. Interestingly, this same thing happened a few years back on an Air Canada flight, and the person involved was the same age.
1 comment
Once someone was arrested for greeting his friend by waving and saying in a loud voice “Hi Jack!”. They wouldn’t back down when the man explained that nothing joking or nefarious was intended.