A Spirit Airlines passenger’s refusal to pay a $50 baggage fee has proved extremely costly – both for the elderly man himself and hundreds of other flyers at New York LaGuardia Airport
After becoming irate over the $50 checked bag fee, 70-year old John Park allegedly threw the bag on the ticket kiosk counter and said: “You keep it, and there’s a bomb in it.”
He then calmly walked away.
That, unsurprisingly, sparked a major security operation with part of the terminal on lockdown and bomb squad called.
No explosives were found but it caused early morning disruption at the airport for about two hours.
Park of Farmington, Michigan, was arrested by Port Authority police for making a bomb threat.
Park pleaded not guilty at a court appearance later on Saturday and was released without bail.
Park claimed it was all a big misunderstanding and he was only joking.
“I’m Asian. We have a different, humour-making culture,” he said in court.
