UC Lecturer Cleared of Bomb Threat on Jet

Charges were dropped against a University of California lecturer Thursday after an 11-year-old San Francisco boy acknowledged writing a note saying bombs were aboard an American Airlines flight.

The order dropping a charge against Peter M. Canning of making a bomb threat on an aircraft was signed Thursday by U.S. Magistrate Sumner G. Buell after the boy and his parents came forward in San Francisco, defense attorney Ray Twohig and the FBI said.

The boy had been on the same plane during an earlier flight Tuesday and had left the note, Twohig and the FBI reported.

The UC Berkeley literature teacher, who had been released on his own recognizance, was en route to his home in Berkeley by car Thursday evening and could not be notified of the development, Twohig said.

FBI Statement

“An investigation into a bomb threat incident aboard American Airlines Flight 240 has resulted in the determination that an 11-year-old boy was the writer of the note,” FBI spokesman Doug Beldon said, reading from a release.

“In San Francisco this afternoon, an 11-year-old boy came forward with his parents and admitted writing the threatening note,” Beldon said. “The FBI determined that the note was written while the boy was watching a movie during a flight from Philadelphia to San Francisco via Chicago. After writing the note, the boy placed the note on his pullout tray, which was folded into the receptacle beside the seat following the service of the in-flight meal.”

Agents determined the boy was sitting in the same seat later occupied by Canning, 40.

“In view of information developed during the course of today’s investigation, the charges against Canning have been dropped,” Beldon said.

The U.S. attorney’s office in San Francisco declined to prosecute the boy.

The FBI arrested Canning late Tuesday after a bomb threat forced an American Airlines flight out of San Francisco bound for Dallas to make an emergency landing in Albuquerque for a bomb search. The plane was carrying 198 passengers.

Jim Nelson, special agent in charge of the FBI’s New Mexico office, said he “regrets any inconvenience and embarrassment suffered by Mr. Canning. However, the investigation fully warranted the arrest of Canning, which occurred after consulting with the U.S. attorney’s office in Albuquerque.”