A Houston pastor says his flight to Washington, D.C., turned into “something straight out of a movie” after a bomb threat forced an emergency evacuation.
HOUSTON — A Houston pastor’s flight to Washington, D.C., turned into what he called “something straight out of a movie” when a bomb threat targeted his plane.
William Jackson, who travels frequently for work, said his Houston-to-D.C. flight had just landed at Reagan National Airport when the pilot announced there would be a delay because of a security incident. Moments later, things took a dramatic turn.
“You heard the flight attendants say, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, sit down immediately. Don’t touch anything in your overhead compartments,’” Jackson recalled. “That’s where we really start to see more of, OK, this is a little serious.”
Then, passengers were told to leave everything behind.
“The next communication that we heard was, ‘Hey, get up, leave your purses, your, your bags, whatever’s not on your person, don’t touch it. We have to exit the plane,’” Jackson said.
As they got off the aircraft, Jackson said they walked past a line of officers armed with assault rifles and accompanied by bomb-sniffing dogs. Each passenger was later interviewed by investigators.
“She said, you know, we have received information that there was a bomb threat on your plane,” Jackson said. “And now we want to question you all to hear if you all have heard anything, seen anything suspicious, and so we’ll be talking to you all basically just to try to extract any information.”
Two hours after the initial delay, the plane was given the all-clear. No bomb was found, and passengers were allowed to leave.
Adding to the travel chaos, Jackson’s return flight to Houston the next morning was rescheduled due to a landing gear issue. He eventually made it home safely.
No arrests have been announced in connection with the threat.
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