Delay of Singapore-bound flight: Cops trace source of prank text

CEBU, Philippines - An official of the Police Regional Office-7 yesterday said they already traced the source of the bomb threat that caused a five-hour delay on the flight of Singapore-bound Silk Air last Tuesday afternoon at the Mactan Cebu International Airport.

Sr. Supt. Louie Oppus, chief of Regional Operations and Plans Divisions, assured the public that there is nothing to fear because the incident was just caused by a prank texter. He added terrorists would not send text messages before they attack. 

According to Oppus, they have already identified the person responsible for the prank text message but said they could not give the name yet because an investigation is still on going.

He said they met already with the owner of the cell phone who forwarded the text message to the airport officials and asked about the said incident. The said person allegedly claimed he was just in their house during the incident.

The police official said the original source of the prank text message is now using a different SIM (subscriber identity module) but added they cannot easily pin down the suspect as they have to do further investigation to know his identity.

On the other hand, Sr. Supt. Marcelino Garbo, PRO-7 deputy regional director for operations said they would be filing charges against the person who created the prank text message.

He added the said suspected person is not staying in Cebu but he is still in Central Visayas.

It was reported earlier that 127 passengers and six crew of Silk Air flight 541 were asked to disembark after MCIA general manager Danilo Francia received a bomb threat via text message at 1:17 p.m. The plane was scheduled to take off at 1:45 p.m.

Asking the people inside the plane to disembark, according to Francia, is a standard procedure during bomb threats.

While the passengers and crew were at the terminal, the cargo and the whole plane was checked by personnel of the Police Civil Aviation Security, Special Reaction Unit of the Mactan Airport backed by trained dogs, said Francia.

The message sent to Francia reads: “Mga kapatid allahu Akbar ipagdasal natin ang kaluluwa ng kapatid nating namatay sa pagsabug ng silk air minuto ngayon patungo Singapore Allahu Akbar.Ji.”

Francia said they have to take precautionary measures and could not just dismiss the threat as a hoax. — Christopher Gabriel C. Bonjoc/WAB   (THE FREEMAN)