Drunk Finnair passenger threatened with bomb – fined €4,300 for false alarm

The Finnair flight from Helsinki was about to land in Vienna when a rowdy and drunk passenger mentioned to the flight attendant that he had a bomb in his briefcase. Now the passenger is sentenced to a fine for the false alarm and for causing panic on board the plane.

It was in November 2019 that a male passenger on board a Finnair flight from Helsinki to Vienna told one of the flight attendants on board that he had a bomb in his briefcase. She notified the captain, who in turn contacted the airline’s command centre and air traffic control in Vienna.

Once the aircraft had landed, the passenger threatened to detonate the bomb, whereupon his luggage was searched, and the aircraft evacuated and examined. No bomb was found, but all this led to the return journey to Finland being delayed by over an hour and a half.

Now Västra Nyland’s district court has sentenced the man to a 60-day fine for false alarms according to the Criminal Code. The convicted person must also pay 80 euros in victim compensation and roughly 2,000 euros in damages to the airline, which due to the delay had to arrange new plane tickets and hotel accommodation for the thirteen passengers who missed their connecting flights. The total will be just under 4,300 euros.

The man denies the accusation. He says he doesn’t remember saying anything about a bomb to the flight attendant, but he admits he was heavily intoxicated during the flight. He also believes that the compensation to the airline is too high.

After the stewardess reported a potential bomb on board the plane, both she and the captain spoke to the passenger before passing the bomb suspicion on to air traffic control in Vienna. The plane has since been demonstrably evacuated and searched, which seems to be proof enough that the passenger has stuck to his claim about a bomb in the briefcase. Therefore, the district court now sentences him according to Chapter 10 of the Criminal Code for a false alarm to a penalty, in this case, a 60-day fine. The district court also believes that the man’s purpose was to cause panic on board the plane.

Source: HBL (Finland)