A man arrested by police after a Breeze Airways flight made an emergency diversion due to a perceived threat against the aircraft stood up and apologized to the passengers onboard for disrupting their travel plans as he was being handcuffed by police.
Breeze Airways flight 717 from Orlando to Providence made an unscheduled stopover at Jacksonville International Airport on Tuesday evening after passengers reportedly heard someone say ‘bomb’ during an inflight argument between two passengers.
The arguing seatmates had allegedly already got into a vocal tussle before takeoff but the altercation between the pair after takeoff and one is claimed to have said the other had a bomb on them.
There was no apparent evidence to back up the wild accusation but the pilots decided the safest option was to get the Airbus A220 aircraft on the ground as soon as possible.
Around 45 minutes after takeoff, the plane turned back on itself, having made it halfway between Brunswick and Savannah and landed in Jacksonville, where local law enforcement were waiting.
As the suspect was led away by law enforcement, he was heard saying: “Ladies and gentlemen, I apologize for messing up your travel plans.”
Local news station WJXT reported that the FBI also responded to the incident, although it’s unclear whether any charges will be brought against the suspect.
Unfortunately, Breeze was forced to cancel the flight and passengers were told to find themselves hotels which would be reimbursed. According to flight tracking website Flight Radar 24, the flight is set to fly from Jacksonville to Providence at 11:30 am on Wednesday.
