The Nation - News from Dec. 12, 1988

A TWA flight from San Juan to Miami with 128 people on board was diverted to Grand Turk island after a 1980 Mariel boatlift refugee told the crew he had a bomb and wanted to go to Havana, officials said. The suspect, Felix Sanchez Rodriguez, 26, of Miami, was arrested soon after the plane landed when police on Grand Turk fooled him into thinking he was in Cuba, according to FBI spokesman Paul Miller. No one was injured, and the man was found to have no bomb, he said. Authorities said the suspect, who claimed to be able to detonate an explosive device stored in an overhead baggage compartment using his wristwatch, wanted to go to Cuba to see his sick mother. An FBI spokesman said extradition proceedings will begin today for possible air piracy charges.