Air passenger who ‘joked’ about a bomb in luggage is arrested

A joke about a bomb inside a carry-on bag wasn’t funny to airline personnel and led to delayed flights at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and the arrest of an Air Canada passenger.

When a flight attendant on Tuesday night asked passengers who owned a bag that would not fit into an overhead bin, Nathalie Dorothee Tremblay, 53, told her boyfriend, “There’s a bomb in it,” and began laughing, according to a Broward Sheriff’s arrest report.

Tremblay, of Montreal, was warned by her boyfriend to not make a joke or she would be taken off the plane. The flight attendant became alarmed, reported what was said to the flight’s captain and passengers disembarked, the report said.

Terminal 2 was closed, the Broward Sheriff ’s bomb squad examined the luggage and found it did not hold an explosive.

The Air Canada flight to Montreal was delayed approximately two hours. Two other inbound flights from another airline were delayed about an hour until law enforcement determined it was safe to bring other aircraft and passengers into the terminal, said Gregory Meyer, spokesman for Broward County Aviation Department.

Tremblay told deputies several versions of what she said on the plane, according to the report.

She told one investigator that she told the flight attendant, “I hope there’s not a bomb in there,” while talking about the bag. She said that she made that comment in a serious manner and didn’t laugh.

Later on, she said she made “a stupid joke” about the bag and told the flight attendant that “It’s probably a bomb,” the report said.

She also said she could not remember the exact words that she used and apologized for making stupid joke” about it.

Deputies arrested Tremblay on suspicion of making a false report of a bomb/explosive/weapon of mass destruction, a felony offense.

During a court hearing Wednesday, Assistant Public Defender Hector Romero said, “I do understand that in the times we’re living in, this was basically a horrible joke gone wrong, and I do believe Ms. Tremblay realizes that now.”

Broward County Judge Jackie Powell set a $5,000 bond for Tremblay. “a