One-year prison sentence for false bomb threat

Airline Industry Information, Feb 4, 2005

AIRLINE INDUSTRY INFORMATION-(C)1997-2005 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD

A young woman has been sentenced to a year in prison for asking a friend to make a bomb threat to Philadelphia airport so that she could avoid missing her flight to London.

19-year-old Hatice Ceylan was also ordered along with her friend to pay USD9,075 to American Airlines and USD100 to each of the 17 travellers who were delayed by the bomb scare.

Last spring Ceylan misplaced her passport shortly before she was to fly from Philadelphia to Boston, and then connect to a flight to London. Realizing she was going to be late, she asked a friend in England, Ilays Savas, to call a hotel at the Philadelphia airport and claim that someone was planning to put bombs aboard both aircraft. Both flights were delayed in order to be searched.

Savas was sentenced in January to 18 months in prison.

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