The traveling public’s stupidity really knows no bounds, eh?
The traveling public’s stupidity really knows no bounds, eh?
Man loses wallet, calls in SpiceJet bomb threat
The New Indian Express reports on an incident that happened on Tuesday, December 26, 2023, and involves a man who was traveling on SpiceJet flight SG8536 from Delhi (DEL) to Bangalore (BLR). He arrived at the airport at around 9:20AM, exited the aircraft, and proceeded into the arrivals hall. However, at that point he realized that he had left his wallet on the plane.
So he called up SpiceJet’s call center at 10:16AM, in hopes of having the wallet recovered before the aircraft continued on its next flight. The traveler sensed that the urgency of the situation wasn’t being taken seriously, so he took it to the next level, by claiming that there was a bomb in his wallet. According to the police:
“He was asked routine questions by the person answering the call and put on hold by an executive. Sensing that his call was not treated seriously and desperate to get his wallet back, he claimed that it had a bomb in it and to locate it immediately.”
The agent asked for details on where in the wallet the bomb was located, to which he replied:
“I will not tell you. It will burst when it has to.”
At this point, airport police were alerted of the situation, and this was then escalated to the Special Bomb Detection Assessment Committee. They assessed the threat to be a hoax, so no major action needed to be taken.
SpiceJet staff did manage to locate the wallet inside the aircraft at 10:59AM. However, rather than being reunited with his wallet, the traveler was instead arrested by police. He has now been charged with public mischief and criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication.
Airports really bring out the worst in people
Airports have a tendency to bring out the worst in people, as we see all too often. Most people are stressed to begin with when they travel, and if anything goes wrong, they’re not sure how to cope with it. At least I try to give people the benefit of the doubt and assume that’s what they’re thinking when they have a meltdown, or do something like this.
I can totally understand how frustrating it must be to leave your wallet on the plane, and then to feel totally helpless with recovering it. It’s also not surprising that the SpiceJet customer service phone number wasn’t necessarily the best way to get the help he needed.
However, one has to wonder about the thought process of claiming there’s a bomb in your wallet. Yes, that’s definitely a way to make sure your wallet gets recovered, but did the guy really think there wouldn’t be any consequences. How did that play out in his head?
Did he expect they’d recover his wallet and return it to him as if nothing happened? And for that matter, what kind of a bomb fits inside of a wallet? If there’s any silver lining here, at least the bomb threat wasn’t believable, so it didn’t cause any major operational disruptions at the airport.
Bottom line
A SpiceJet passenger accidentally left his wallet onboard a flight, and only discovered it some time after he disembarked. He called airline customer service, but felt like recovery of the wallet wasn’t being taken seriously. So he then claimed that there was a bomb inside the wallet.
On the plus side, the wallet did end up getting recovered. However, the traveler now faces some major charges…
What do you make of this SpiceJet incident?