Authorities Evacuated Southwest Plane After Note Threatened Bomb on Board

Aug. 5, 2005
A passenger on a Southwest Airlines flight Friday found a note that claimed a bomb was on board and alerted the crew, prompting the plane to land at an isolated part of Hobby Airport.

HOUSTON (AP) -- A note found in a Southwest Airlines seat pocket claiming a bomb was on the plane prompted a landing and evacuation of 136 passengers.

No one was injured and no explosives had been found as of Friday afternoon.

Law enforcement agencies interviewed and re-screened passengers while bomb-sniffing dogs searched the plane at an isolated end of Houston's Hobby Airport.

FBI spokesman Al Tribble said he didn't have the exact wording of the note, but ''it definitely announced there's a bomb on the plane.''

The passenger found the note in the seat pocket on the flight from Dallas to Houston and then scheduled to go on to Corpus Christi. It was unclear whether the note was written on that flight or had been left on a previous flight, Tribble said.

The Transportation Security Administration, FBI and Houston police were interviewing passengers, said TSA spokeswoman Andrea McCauley.

Police, fire and medical crews were sent to the landing site as a precaution.

Hobby Airport is the smaller of Houston's two major airports, handling only domestic flights.