On 17 March, Beijing Capital International Airport was ordered to perform an emergency evacuation. The event was triggered when a man reportedly told a worker at the security checkpoint, “I have a bomb up my ass.”

As a result, the security gate was closed off and all other passengers and guests of the airport were evacuated. A thorough sweep of facility was performed and the man was detained according to China’s Qian Long Network.

At around 5 p.m., the man in question was waiting to pass through a security checkpoint in Terminal 3 of the airport. He was growing increasingly frustrated as he watched how slowly things were going. When he finally made it to the security check, he was instructed to remove his shoes. It was then that he remarked, “Should I drop my pants too? I have a bomb up my ass.” Soon after the emergency evacuation procedure was started.

During the ensuing detailed investigation the man was discovered to be entirely unarmed. He made a statement to investigators saying, “I said it just venting about the long wait for the security check. It was meant to be a light joke. I certainly didn’t expect it to turn out like this.”

It’s hard to understand how someone would not expect a bomb joke in an airport to end up any other way. On the other hand, airport wait times could be excruciating enough to result in a temporary insanity inducing situation. Either way, the man was punished with five days in custody for disturbing the peace in a public place.

The one bright side to this story is that Beijing Capital International Airport seems to be really on the ball when it comes to security. We’re not sure exactly how the man was found not to be in possession of a bomb, but considering what he said, the process probably wasn’t pretty.

Source: Xinhua (Japanese)
Image: Wikipedia – Micah Sittig