A passenger was arrested at Fort Lauderdale International Airport (FLL) on Sunday morning after he allegedly made a bomb threat on a JetBlue plane, which was preparing for departure to New York JFK, prompting a security scare.
Passengers on the Airbus A321 aircraft had to be evacuated while the bomb squad and a K9 unit were called in to search the plane, before it was eventually released back into the control of JetBlue.
The flight in question is believed to be JetBlue flight B6-514, which was meant to depart Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Airport from Gate F5 at 9:18 am but was delayed by over three hours, eventually taking off at 1:16 pm once the all-clear had been given and passengers were allowed to reboard.
Local news outlets have identified the suspect as 76-year-old Robert Albanese, who was arrested and taken into custody by the Broward Sheriff’s Office.
Sources claim Albanese made the threat after becoming frustrated with not being able to find space in the overhead bins for his carry-on luggage. The details of the threat he made have not, however, been made public.
Depending on the point in time at which Albanese allegedly made the threat could be a big factor in which federal crime he might be charged with.
If the aircraft door was closed, then the plane would be considered ‘in flight’, meaning that Albanese could be charged under 49 U.S.C. § 46507 – False Threats Aboard Aircraft, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment.
If, however, the cabin door was still open, then he would more likely be charged under 18 U.S.C. § 35 – Bomb Hoax, which carries a maximum sentence of five years imprisonment.
Last month, 27-year-old Taj Malik Taylor from Madison Heights, Virginia, pleaded guilty to one count of false information and making threats on a plane after he loudly proclaimed that his laptop was a bomb shortly after the flight had taken off from Saint Pete-Clearwater International Airport in Florida on July 6, 2025.
Other passengers sitting around Taylor heard his comment, and the plane diverted back to Saint Pete-Clearwater, where he was taken into custody.
Taylor is yet to be sentenced.
It is, however, rare for bomb threat suspects to face the maximum possible sentence. In 2024, for example, a man who made a bomb threat aboard a Breeze Airways flight to Rhode Island was sentenced to two years in federal prison.
Evan Sims was also ordered to pay Breeze more than $25,000 in restitution for the disruption he caused. Sims made the threat when he claimed his partner had a bomb on her… she had just broken up with him.
If there’s one place that a bomb threat will be taken more seriously than anywhere else, that’s in an airport or on an airplane. Authorities will normally scramble law enforcement when even the least plausible of threats is made.
In January, fighter jets from both France and Spain were scrambled to intercept a Turkish Airlines flight to Barcelona after a bomb threat was detected via a network name created via the in-flight Wi-Fi service.
As the plane was approaching Barcelona, another passenger searched for a Wi-Fi network on their phone and discovered a network that had been named: “I HAVE A BOMB. EVERYONE WILL DIE.”
The pilots took the threat seriously, declared an emergency, and entered a holding pattern while fighter jets were scrambled to escort the plane into Barcelona. The threat was later declared a hoax, although attempts to trace the culprit have so far been unsuccessful.
