Singapore:
A 37-year-old American man has been charged in a Singapore court with assaulting cabin crew and making a fake bomb threat aboard a Singapore Airlines flight from San Francisco.
Singapore police were warned on Wednesday of an alleged bomb threat aboard flight SQ33 from San Francisco to Singapore.
The man was stopped by the crew and police subsequently arrested him for making false threats of terrorist acts and for suspected consumption of controlled drugs.
The aircraft landed safely at Changi Airport at approximately 5:50 am, escorted by Republic of Singapore Air Force F-16C/D fighter jets.
“Preliminary investigation indicates that during the flight the man shouted that there was a bomb on the plane and took another passenger’s luggage from the luggage compartment of the cabin,” the Singapore Police Force (SPF) said in a statement on Thursday. declaration.
A cabin crew member who tried to intervene and restrain La Andy Hien Duc was allegedly assaulted, police said.
Checks by cabin crew did not reveal any suspicious items in the American’s luggage, Channel News Asia reported, citing police.
“Preliminary investigation by the Central Narcotics Bureau has revealed that the man’s urine tested positive for controlled drugs,” the police added.
The American was charged with offenses read with a section of the Tokyo Convention Act 1971, which allows violators to be charged under Singapore laws if a crime occurs on a Singapore-controlled aircraft flying outside the country.
He was also remanded in custody at the Institute of Mental Health for psychiatric observation and will return to court on October 13.
If found guilty of using threatening words that could cause alarm, he could be fined up to 5,000 Singapore dollars. The offense of voluntarily inflicting pain carries a penalty of up to three years in prison, a fine of up to 5,000 Singapore dollars, or both.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.)