Kou Wei Chiu, 31, of Bellevue, Tennessee, made an initial court appearance on Thursday night, where he was charged with making a false threat against an aircraft. A detention hearing is set to take place.

According to an FBI affidavit filed in support of the complaint, Chiu admitted that he used a payphone at Seattle-Tacoma to call emergency services number 911 three times after he arrived at the gate too late to board his Northwest Airlines flight on Wednesday.

"Flight 980 Memphis. There may be a bomb on board," Chiu was quoted as telling the operator.

"After his first phone call, he looked outside at the plane and saw that his call had had 'no effect'," FBI agent Gary France wrote. "He made a second phone call and noticed that this call too had no effect. This led to the third call.

"Chiu stated that he made the calls thinking that the airline 'would ground the plane for a couple of hours', because bomb threats are taken seriously. When asked how he thought other passengers might react when they overheard his calls, he conceded that he thought 'they would be traumatised'," the affidavit said.

Chiu also told investigators that he had been off his antidepressant medication in recent days, Mr France wrote.

His lawyer said Chiu was eager to return to his family.

The plane was in the air by the time Chiu was arrested, and it was brought back to the gate and grounded for several hours while authorities determined the threat to be a hoax.

Press Association

Güncelleme Tarihi: 27 Temmuz 2007, 09:54