A Rhode Island man has been sentenced to two years in federal prison after causing a false alarm on an airplane with claims of a bomb onboard, which turned out to be a hoax. Evan Sims, 41, was handed the sentence by U.S. District Judge Harvey E. Schlesinger, followed by a subsequent three-year term of supervised release; Sims has also been ordered to reimburse Breeze Airways $25,478 in restitution, as indicated in a press release on the Department of Justice website.
The incident occurred on December 5, 2023, on a flight departing from Orlando, Florida to Providence, Rhode Island, where Sims, after engaging in a dispute with his travel companion, made several troubling comments that unsettled other passengers including a statement about the airplane potentially going "down" and them being "gone with the wind," which led to increased anxiety among those on board. Sims's erratic behavior escalated—during the airline safety briefing he speculated about the necessity to use the emergency doors and windows, then during the initial ascent of the flight he rose from his seat and declared twice that his travel companion had brought a bomb on the plane which prompted the crew to divert the flight to Jacksonville International Airport.
An exhaustive security sweep ensued upon landing at Jacksonville, employing bomb detection dogs which detected no explosives. The false alarm led to Sims's arrest on December 6, 2023, culminating in his guilty plea entered on March 5, for circulating false information and threats. This case was jointly investigated by the Transportation Security Administration, the Jacksonville Aviation Authority Airport Police Department, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with Assistant United States Attorney Ashley Washington spearheading the prosecution efforts.
