A British teenager was released by a Spanish judge Sunday after causing a major security alert by joking to a charter jet pilot that he had a bomb strapped to his body and wanted to travel to Beirut, police said Monday.
"He was arrested when the plane landed. He was searched for bombs and weapons but nothing was found and he was later released," a spokesman for the Guardia Civil police force, responsible for airport security, told UPI.The pilot radioed a message to Britannia Airways in London saying John Herdman, 17, had made the hijack threat shortly after the Boeing 737 took off Sunday from Newcastle upon Tyne in northern England for the Spanish resort of Malaga.
"Britannia Airways rang the security service at Malaga airport and the Guardia Civil responded," Malaga police spokesman Julian Martin said.
"It was a bit of banter made in passing aimed at breaking the ice with the pilots," said an airline spokesman.