A passenger’s unfounded statement alluding to a bomb aboard a passenger jet about to depart San Diego International Airport led authorities to ground the flight Tuesday.
Authorities evacuated Honolulu-bound Hawaiian Airlines Flight 15 and searched the aircraft and its contents, but found nothing suspicious, according to Brianne Mundy Page, a spokeswoman for the Port of San Diego.
Yet “an arrest has been made,” Mundy Page said in an email. Later in the day, the Port identified the suspect as John Stea, 35, a member of the military. Harbor Police detained Stea, who is facing charges of making a false bomb threat and false report of a security threat.
The Port offered more details of how the incident began aboard Flight 15 in a news release.
Stea is accused of telling a flight attendant that the passenger next to him had a bomb. The attendant informed the captain of the plane as the flight was pulling away from the jetway.
Airline spokeswoman Marissa Villegas, in a prepared statement, said that “as a precaution, the captain immediately taxied the Airbus A330 to a safe location on the airfield, where it was met with local and federal law enforcement and guests were safely deplaned.”
According to the Port, passengers were taken by bus to a safe area. K-9s cleared the aircraft and examined all carry-on and checked luggage.
A total of 283 passengers and 10 crew members were aboard, according to the airline.
Live images posted online by CBS8 showed the jetliner parked alongside a runway with its front passenger stairway deployed and personnel nearby with service dogs inspecting luggage that apparently had been removed from the plane.
Among agencies that responded along with a Harbor Police SWAT team were the FBI, Joint Terrorism Task Force and San Diego Fire-Rescue Department, Mundy Page said.
The situation remained under investigation at midday but had caused no flight delays, San Diego County Regional Airport Authority spokeswoman Nicole Hall said.
Hawaiian Airlines, meanwhile, worked “to get all (the delayed travelers) to Honolulu as quickly as possible,” the company representative said. Passengers were cleared to again board the aircraft and the flight took off for Hawaii at about 2:15 p.m.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Updated 6:05 p.m. May 20, 2025.
