• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
PAPBA

Port Authority Police Benevolent Association Inc.

Trained, Tested, True Blue

  • Members
  • Store
  • Donate
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Vimeo
  • Home
  • About
    • PAPBA Mission
    • PAPBA History
    • PAPD History
    • Executive Board
    • President’s Message
    • Officer Testimonials
    • PBA Canteen
    • Pipes and Drums Band
  • News
    • PAPBA News
    • Endorsements
    • FBI Most Wanted
  • What We Do
    • Aviation
    • Bus Terminals
    • Bridges and Tunnels
    • Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH)
    • World Trade Center (WTC)
    • Marine Terminals
    • Police Academy
    • Special Operations
  • Affiliates
  • In Memoriam
    • Fallen Officers
    • Survivor Assistance
    • Never Forget
      • September 11, 2001
      • Our Flag
      • Honored on Top of the World
      • December 29, 1975
      • February 26, 1993
  • Contact
  • Members
  • Store
  • Donate
Search

News

Traveler at LaGuardia Airport claims he has bomb after getting mad about $50 bag fee, sparking evacuation

October 14, 2017 by PAPBA

John Park, 70, was checking in at a Spirit Airlines counter in Terminal B around 7 a.m., on his way to visit his brother in Detroit, when he was informed about the fee to check his baggage.

Park refused to pay, Port Authority cops said.

After arguing with the ticket agent, Park stormed off leaving the bag behind, police said. When the ticket agent said he couldn’t simply abandon the bag, Park said there was a bomb inside.

Cops took Park into custody while the NYPD bomb squad was called in to look through his bag, Port Authority police spokesman Joseph Pentangelo said.

Park brushed off the airport kerfuffle after he was arraigned on a felony charge of making a terrorist threat — and released without bail.

“I’m an Asian,” he said outside Queens Criminal Court. “[We] have different culture, making jokes.”

“They just overreacted,” Park added.

Following the bomb threat, flights were diverted from Terminal B and several screening checkpoints and pre-security areas were closed and evacuated for two hours.

Travelers were left stuck outside the terminal — and in planes arriving at the airport.

“They told us there was a suspicious package and they had to clear out the terminal so we were sitting on the plane for about an hour,” said Janet Smith-Tolale, 42, who was coming into New York from Atlanta. “I was going to drive. Then my husband said he found some cheap tickets.”

Hindsight is 20/20.

Original Article

Filed Under: In the News

Primary Sidebar

Latest News

Quick acting officers save life of construction worker at Laguardia Airport

September 10, 2020

QUEENS, New York (WABC) — Officers are being praised for their quick action that save the life… Read More

HEROES: Port Authority Police Revive Stricken Construction Worker At LaGuardia

September 10, 2020

A group of Port Authority police officers revived a construction worker who suffered a medical episode… Read More

‘Never forget’ 9/11 vow still means so much to so many

September 10, 2020

Sister of victim, Andy Card and Bill Bratton all to honor heroes who sacrificed their lives that day… Read More

More News

Copyright © 2021 Port Authority Police Benevolent Association Inc.
All Rights Reserved. Website designed and developed by 911MEDIA.

Executive Email