Airport Bomb Talk Will Get A Warning Instead Of Jail Time

Airline travelers won’t be arrested for making stupid comments, but they should still watch what they say. A recent security bulletin sent to all airport screeners strongly suggests they use more discretion when deciding whether a passenger is joking or not.

However, that still doesn’t mean you should joke about having a bomb in your suitcase, because you’ll still get arrested and have a number of uncomfortable things happen to you.

The bulletin, sent out May 16, asks screeners to discern between so-called false declarations, which are illegal (such as ‘He is going to hijack the aircraft’) and careless or inflammatory comments, which get a warning (like ‘What do you think I look like, a terrorist?’).

Police and security will still take any and all threats as seriously as possible, however this will allow officers to continue screening with only a warning rather than a full search and arrest.

Brigitte Caron, a spokeswoman for the security authority, said the clarification was issued because “screening officers were not discerning the context in which the declaration or the statement was made. And they were a little bit too quick on the trigger.”

CATSA, created in 2002 following the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington , has had at least 117 incidents in which air travellers made false declarations and were detained, she said.

“The screening officer (now) evaluates the entire context and is not simply triggered by the word `bomb’,” she says.

A list of the examples given for each kind:

    Illegal comments:

   The person over there is carrying a bomb.

   I have a bomb in my bag.

   There’s a bomb in the washroom.

   The bag I checked in upstairs contains an IED (improvised explosive device).

   I am going to set fire to this airplane with this blowtorch.

   I’ve got plastic explosives that can blow up this airport.

   I’m going to blow up this airplane over the Atlantic .

   You better look through my suitcase carefully, because there’s a bomb in there.

   Screener: What’s in that bottle? Passenger: Liquid explosives.

   The man in seat 32F has a machine gun.

   Comments prompting warnings only

   Do you think I have a bomb in my suitcase?

   There’s no bomb in my shoe.

   What do you think I look like, a terrorist?

   Hi Jack!

   My gun misfired when I was hunting this weekend.

   This security does nothing to stop hijacking.

   Your hockey team is going to get bombed tonight!

   You don’t need to frisk me, I’m not carrying a weapon.

With files from the Canadian Press