Latest  News

Bomb hoax suspect caught in S China
A man who allegedly made false bomb threats that affected five flights was caught Thursday morning in the city of Dongguan in South China's Guangdong Province, police from the city of Shenzhen said.

Three airlines hit by false bomb threats
Three Chinese air carriers on Wednesday were targeted by false bomb threats involving five airplanes.

5 flights affected by bomb hoax
Three Chinese airlines were targeted by false bomb threats Wednesday morning, according to sources with the airlines. Five flights operated by China Eastern Airlines, Juneyao Airlines and Shenzhen Airlines were affected.

Details

Information of the affected flights (Source: Agencies – Globaltimes.cn)
Flight	Scheduled Time of Departure	Scheduled Time of Arrival	Departure	Arrival	Status
ZH9866	7:40 am	9:45 am	Nanjing	Shenzhen	The flight returned to Nanjing Lukou International Airport after receiving a bomb threat.
ZH9889	8:00 am	11:05 am	Beijing	Shenzhen	The flight was cleared after the airline received the threat, and took off at 11:48 am.
ZH9243	7:25 am	9:50 am	Xi’an	Shenzhen	The flight was forced to land in Guilin.
HO1111	8:05 am	10:15 am	Shanghai	Shenzhen	The flight departed at 11:48 am after returning to Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport for another round of security check and changing planes.
MU2325	9:40 am	12:05 pm	Xi’an	Shenzhen	The flight took off at 11:52 am and arrived in Shenzhen at 14:06 pm.

Official voices of the Civil Aviation Administration of China:

All five bomb threats received on the morning of May 15 were confirmed as false, according to airline sources. The five flights were operated by China Eastern Airlines, Juneyao Airlines and Shenzhen Airlines. Police are investigating the incident.

Fabricating threats seriously disrupts social order and also violates China’s Criminal Law, experts pointed out. According to the Law, those convicted of issuing bomb threats face 5 to 15 years in prison.

Witness testimony:

@朱旭Stephen, who claims he was a passenger of Flight HO1111 on May 15, posted on Sina Weibo that the flight returned to Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport 30 minutes after it took off. “Lots of police came and all passengers are safe,” said the post.

@-刘宗源 said on Sina Weibo that flight ZH9243 made an emergency landing. “Everything is a mess. I thought the plane was going to explode. We were told to run and not to think about our luggage. I was even injured during the panic,” the post said.

Photos:

Weibo  Voices

@X-X光: The airport should strengthen its safety protocol and the government should give harsher punishments for such crimes. This way, people won’t dare do it again.

@分享生活: Why don't the airlines release the phone numbers to the public? With everyone on the hunt this criminal will have nowhere to hide.

@This_is_FaiRy: Bomb hoaxes disrupt order and cause panic. This kind of criminals often hate society, and they most likely need psychological treatment.

Related  Information

Previous cases
Time	Flight	Incident
July 14, 2010	CZ3912	A bomb threat forced a flight from Urumqi in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region to make an emergency landing.
April 27, 2012	CA406	Pu, 18, called Shanghai Pudong International Airport on April 27, claiming that he had planted a bomb on an Air China flight and demanding that 1 million yuan ($158,730) be remitted to his bank account. He was sentenced to one year and two months in prison.
August 29, 2012	CA981	An Air China flight, bound for New York, returned to the Beijing Capital International Airport after receiving a threatening message.
August 30, 2012	ZH9706	The plane, bound for Shenzhen from Xiangyang, Hubei Province, was forced to make an emergency landing after receiving a call claiming that explosives would be donated on the flight after its take-off. Police found no dangerous items on board after inspecting the plane. Several days later, Xiong Yi, who made the call, was arrested in Guangdong.
September 9, 2012	JD5168	A man lied that a bomb was on a plane about to take off from Sanya to Guangzhou.
October 8, 2012	CZ680	An international passenger plane, traveling from Istanbul to Beijing via Urumqi, made a forced landing in Gansu Zhongchuan Airport in Gansu's capital of Lanzhou after receiving an anonymous terrorist threat.
October 9, 2012	CA4111	A flight from Lhasa to Beijing via Chengdu, received threat calls before takeoff. And no dangerous items were found on the flight.
December 1, 2012	CZ3620	Two China Southern Airlines flights were grounded for further checks after a man called police three times about the hoax, incurring direct economic losses of 350,000 yuan ($56,000) for the airline.
April 10, 2013	CA1568	A flight bound for Beijing from Wenzhou was delayed for nearly two hours after a passenger claimed to have carried a bomb onboard in the luggage, airport authorities said.

Legal penalties to bomb hoax
	In China, those convicted of issuing bomb threats face 5 to 15 years in prison.
	In the US, the penalty, for interference with a flight crew, is a maximum statutory sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
	In Australia, the penalty for bomb hoax is a maximum statutory sentence of 10 years in prison.
	In Singapore, those convicted of issuing bomb threats shall be punished with a fine not exceeding 100,000 Singapore dollars ($ 81,301) or with imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years, or both.

Related daily special: Hoax threats disrupt Chinese flights

News Vocab

威胁 wēixié to threaten

“威胁”是指用威力逼迫恫吓使人屈服。(source：《现代汉语词典》)

“威胁” refers to make threats or express an intention to hurt, damage or punish.

Example:

今天上午8时许，一架由虹桥机场起飞飞往深圳的吉祥航空HO1111航班收到威胁信息。（source: news.sina.com）

Juneyao Airlines flight H01111 from Shanghai Hongqiao to Shenzhen received a bomb threat at around 8 am this morning.