2 Held for Extortion in Bomb Hoax on L.A. to N.Y. Flight

A Redondo Beach man and a Hawthorne woman have been arrested in connection with a bomb hoax extortion scheme involving a United Airlines flight from Los Angeles to New York this week, the FBI said Friday.

FBI Special Agent Karen Gardner said the scheme “appears to be a classic case of extortion for financial gain.” She discounted speculation that the hoax may have stemmed from United’s recent decision to change security companies at Los Angeles International Airport.

Agents said they arrested 20-year-old Paul Stoos--a former employee of several airlines, including United Express, which is a marketing partner of United Airlines--after receiving a tip from an informant in the Los Angeles area.

Stoos was taken into custody at about 6 p.m. Thursday aboard another plane, an American Airlines jetliner that was about to leave New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport on a flight to Los Angeles. Stoos, who surrendered without incident, had been traveling under the name of singer Harry Connick Jr., the U.S. attorney’s office said.

A criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn charges Stoos with extortion and transmitting false information, thereby endangering the public.

Joan Hill, 42, a passenger service employee at Northwest Airlines, was arrested Friday night near the Los Angeles airport. She faces charges of aiding and abetting, extortion and transmitting false information, FBI spokesman John Hoos said. Hill is to appear before a federal judge in Los Angeles on Monday, he said.

The connection between Stoos and Hill was not immediately clear.

The complaint filed in Brooklyn alleges that while United’s Flight 46 was en route from Los Angeles to New York on Wednesday with 48 passengers and a crew of 10, a fax was sent from New York to United’s main offices in Elk Grove Village, Ill.

“That fax, entitled ‘Bomb Threat,’ said a bomb was on Flight 46 in a luggage bin (above) seat 25A,” said Charlie J. Parsons, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles office. “The threat said the bomb would explode unless United Airlines paid $600,000, to be delivered to a location in New York City.”

A warning was radioed to Flight 46, and after a brief search, the crew discovered an unaccounted-for package in the luggage bin.

“The package, encased in two shopping bags, was removed by the crew and placed in an unoccupied area (at the rear) of the aircraft,” the complaint says. The pilot advised the passengers and crew of the situation and they were all moved to the forward portion of the aircraft, the complaint says.

Parsons said the plane landed at JFK airport without incident, and the passengers and crew debarked in an area some distance from the passenger terminals. He said the supposed bomb was removed from the aircraft and determined to be a fake consisting of clay, wooden blocks connected by wire to a timer, an antenna and other items.

The incident was widely reported by the media Wednesday night, and agents said that a short time later the FBI office in Los Angeles received a call from an informant.

The informant told agents that the perpetrator of the hoax was Stoos, that Stoos had flown to New York the day before the fax was sent and that Stoos had bragged that he would soon be returning “with a large sum of money,” according to the complaint.

“The tipster also, last week, saw a computer terminal used by Stoos, and on the computer screen was a (message) with the words, ‘Bomb Threat--on Flight 46 from LAX to JFK,’ ” Parsons said.

After talking to the informant, FBI agents searched the trash at Stoos’ residence, Parsons said, and found a torn piece of cardboard that appears to be the flap missing from the fake bomb package placed on Flight 46.

The agents also found an empty box labeled “Marblex Self-Hardening Clay,” a container for tape similar to that found on the package and wire similar to that found on the fake bomb, Parsons said.

According to the complaint, the proprietor of a Mailboxes Etc. office in New York remembered seeing “bomb threat” on a fax sent Wednesday to United Airlines. The FBI said the proprietor’s description of the man who sent the fax closely matches Stoos.

How the fake bomb was placed on board Flight 46 was not immediately clear.

There were widespread media reports early Friday suggesting that the hoax may have been connected to United’s decision to switch a security contract at LAX from Ogden Allied Aviation Services to Andy Frain Aviation Services. But the FBI’s Gardner said that “there does not appear to be any connection” between the bomb threat and security contract change.

Gardner said that Stoos is not known to have any accomplices and is believed to be the only suspect in the case. Details about his jobs with United Express and other airlines were not made known.

Stoos was being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan.