Hoax Discovered In Time To Avert Emergency Landing

A woman claimed there was a bomb on board a Turkish commercial jet Wednesday in an attempt to delay the flight so her husband, who was running late, wouldn't miss it.

"We learned that the warning came from the wife of a passenger who was late for the airplane. We believe that the warning was made in order to delay the flight," said Onur Air spokesman Rauf Gerz. The couple was arrested.

According to the carrier, the fact the threat was a hoax was discovered in time to stop an emergency landing in Ankara. The flight continued to its original destination of Istanbul from Diyarbakir, according to Reuters. Ankara is about halfway between Diyarbakir and Istanbul.

"The police detained the passenger and his wife. They told us the warning was fake and that the plane could continue its flight," said Gerz.

Unfortunately, this isn't the first time something like this has occurred. As ANN reported, 19-year-old Anna Tarasov from Atlanta was in New York on November 4, 2005, trying to get to one boyfriend in Georgia and prevent him from traveling to Minnesota to confront another, according to an exclusive report in the New York Post.

Late for her flight's departure from LaGuardia, she came up with what she thought was an ingenious solution -- she called AirTran's reservation center and said there were two pax with a bomb on Flight 1775. She did it at the exact minute the flight rolled onto the runway at LGA for take-off.

"I remember thinking it wouldn't be such a big deal," Tarasov told the Post's Kate Sheehy. "It totally slipped my mind about the terrorists. Then it hit me. 'Of all the places. This is New York.' It was very stupid."

Terroristic activities such as bomb threats and hijackings are hardly new in Turkey. It is a country in which a number of radical groups operate.

Turkish authorities remain on alert following increased attacks by Kurdish separatist guerrillas in mainly Kurdish-occupied southeast area of the country, where Diyarbakir is the largest city, according to Reuters.

FMI: www.onurair.com.tr