Author of false bomb alert at Geneva airport gets huge bill

Le Matin.

On 14 October, the author of a false bomb alert was sentenced to six months prison after arriving at Geneva airport the day before, and declaring there was a bomb on board an Aeroflot aircraft he was trying to catch to Moscow. The flight connected to another from Moscow to India, where the man planned to visit his family.

The 39 year old man, who had arrived late at the airport, had hoped to slow the departure of his flight, so that he could catch it. Instead, the aircraft was stopped, unloaded, searched by anti bomb experts, and he was arrested.

• Perpetrator of false bomb alert at Geneva airport gets prison sentence (Le News)
• Geneva airport false alert costs culprit 90,000 francs (Le News)

Now, according to the newspaper Le Matin, Geneva police have calculated the cost of the false alert, which involved 101 officiers and six security staff.

“Given the times we live in we must take maximum precautions regarding security. We must remove all doubt because we never know” said François Waridel, of Geneva’s police, adding: “The police have much better things to do than deal with this!”

A bill of CHF 50,000 will be sent to the Indian national who lives in Montreux, Vaud.

This is the second such incident at Geneva airport this year. In July, a jealous spouse from Annecy pretended there was a bomb to stop her husband’s flight to Turkey. The bill sent for this false alert was CHF 90,000.

More on this:
Read full Le Matin article (in French) - Take a 5 minute French test now

For more stories like this on Switzerland follow us on Facebook and Twitter.