Man Uses Bomb Threat to Ground Estranged Family

A Fort Smith man who hoped to keep his estranged wife and children from boarding a flight to Hawaii called in a bomb threat Tuesday on an airplane at Fort Smith Regional Airport, federal officials said.

Michael Terrell Jackson, 30, appeared in federal court Wednesday on a magistrate's complaint charging him with making a false threat of an explosive device on an aircraft.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Beverly Stites Jones ordered Jackson detained and scheduled a hearing for Aug. 28, Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Cromwell said. She appointed federal public defender James Pierce to represent him.

Jackson did not enter a plea Wednesday, Cromwell said.

A Transportation Security Administration officer at the airport received a call about 1 p.m. from a person who said, "You have a bomb on two planes going to Texas. Catch them if you can," an affidavit by FBI Special Agent Timmy K. Akins stated.

About 15 minutes later, the affidavit stated, the Transportation Security Administration officer received another call from a person identifying himself as "Vernie Fisher" who said he had a daughter on a flight to Texas and received an anonymous phone call that there was a bomb on the plane.

The Transportation Security Administration officer told investigators that the two callers sounded alike, the affidavit stated.

Passengers on American Airlines Flight 3522 to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and their luggage were re-screened, but no bomb was found, airport manager Kent Penney said. The flight took off after a 30-minute delay, he said.

While Akins was conducting interviews at the airport, an airport official received a phone call from an unnamed Jackson relative who said he suspected Jackson had made the bomb threat.

The relative said he had driven Stephanie Jackson and her two children to the airport so they could fly to Hawaii. After the flight delay was announced, Stephanie Jackson phoned him, he said. During the conversation, she said she saw her husband drive by the terminal entrance.

Fort Smith police spotted Michael Jackson driving a black Cadillac near his home at 5300 Wilson St. When they stopped the car, Stephanie Jackson and the two children were also inside.

Stephanie Jackson told investigators she'd called her husband from the airport to say she was leaving him and taking the children. Michael Jackson became hysterical and threatened to kill himself, she said.

She told investigators that her husband asked her if she knew why her flight was delayed and told her that he had called the airport and stopped the flight.

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