An Ethiopian man was sentenced to four months in prison on Thursday August 22, 2019, after he was found guilty of “imperilling the safety of aircraft and persons on board”.
The man identified as Chifraye Bekele joked about the presence of an onboard bomb after boarding a Kenya Airways flight.
The joke led to the cancellation of the Johannesburg-bound flight in April and to a three-hour shutdown of Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in the capital, Nairobi.
Magistrate Christine Njagi heard that Bekele had told a flight attendant as she was closing an overhead locker, “Why are you scared? You think it’s a bomb?”
The flight attendant is said to have consulted with her colleagues and also told the captain of Bekele’s comment.
At this point the captain decided to taxi the plane back for inspection.
Passengers were forced to disembark and hence the cancellation of the flight.
While giving his testimony via a translator, Bekele argued that he could not have made the joke as he only spoke Amharic not English.
Bekele was given an option of paying a Ksh100,000 fine, which he couldn't afford and consequently he was taken to custody.
"At approximately 1300 GMT today Kenya Airways was notified of a possible bomb threat on one of our flights. The unfortunate bomb scare incident was reported on flight KQ 762, which was departing from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport for OR-Tambo International Airport Johannesburg," an excerpt of the statement revealed during the April 17, 2019 incident.
The airport was reportedly under lock-down as security personnel carred out thorough screening to ensure all possible threats were neutralized.
