A passenger aboard a departing flight at Ontario International Airport told the crew they heard someone say the words “bomb” and “explosion,” triggering an evacuation of the aircraft and the east wing of Terminal 2 before authorities determined the whole thing stemmed from a video game session. Ontario police said the report came in sometime before 10 p.m., and that the person authorities detained explained he had been on FaceTime with a friend while playing Call of Duty, the online game franchise known for its realistic-sounding gunfire and explosions.
According to CBS News Los Angeles, the detained passenger told police that “bomb” and “explosion” were simply describing his gameplay, not any real threat. Crews searching the plane found no bomb or explosive device aboard, and authorities ultimately deemed that no crime had been committed. All passengers, including the person who had been detained, reboarded the plane for departure once the search wrapped up.
How the Scare Unfolded at Terminal 2
The CBS report identifies the flight as a Frontier Airlines flight but does not specify its destination, and it notes that the evacuation covered both the aircraft itself and the east wing of the terminal — a precaution that speaks to how seriously airport staff and police treat any report involving the word “bomb,” even one that turns out to be gaming chatter overheard mid-flight. Per the same account, no additional details were immediately available following the incident.
Ontario International Airport sits in the Inland Empire, a region that has seen its share of false alarms over the years. The scramble this time mirrors a string of past scares at the same airport, including one in which three terminals were evacuated after a bomb squad investigated a suspicious item in a passenger's luggage — later identified, according to abc7.com, as an inert device used for military training. In that earlier case, the passenger wasn't detained or cited, though authorities confiscated the device and passengers weren't allowed back for about 90 minutes.
A Pattern of Threats That Turn Out to Be Nothing
Ontario's airport has also dealt with threats that arrived mid-flight rather than on the ground. aviationpros.com reported that a bomb threat aboard a Southwest Airlines flight once forced an emergency landing and evacuation at the same airport, after a passenger discovered a threat scrawled on two table trays mid-flight. Similar scrambles have played out elsewhere, too — in 2010, Toronto police investigated a possible pipe bomb aboard a Porter Airlines flight bound for Chicago after a flight attendant overheard a conversation about it, according to nationalpost.com.
None of those earlier incidents are evidence that threats at Ontario International Airport are becoming more frequent — they're simply past examples of the same kind of overreaction-turned-relief that played out this time. In this latest case, once crews confirmed there was nothing aboard the plane, passengers were cleared to reboard and continue on their way, closing out a night that began with a false alarm over a video game and ended with everyone simply catching their flight.
