Man Who Made Phony Plane Bomb Threat Sentenced

A man who called in a phony bomb threat to San Francisco International Airport, hoping to delay a Korea-bound plane so his girlfriend could catch the flight, was sentenced Friday to 10 months in prison.

Flavio David Mendoza, 35, told U.S. District Judge Charles Legge that he had not intended to harm anybody in making the call Dec. 30.

“I was always respectful of the law,” said Mendoza, a Bolivian citizen. “After this experience, I will be even more respectful of the law.”

A jury convicted Mendoza in March of communicating false information, thereby endangering the safety of an aircraft in flight.

According to the FBI and Mendoza’s lawyer, Assistant Public Defender Shawn Halbert, Mendoza had called Korean Airlines several times, urging that the red-eye flight to Seoul be held so his girlfriend, a nurse, could make the connection from St. Louis.

When he was rebuffed, Mendoza called in the bomb threat. Pilots turned the plane back toward San Francisco, and then turned around again when officials determined the call was a hoax.

In court Friday, Halbert painted Mendoza as a workaholic motivated by honor who had never been arrested. She called the phone call to the airport “the one worst moment he ever had.”

Assistant U.S. Atty. Dave Hall said it was bad moment for people on board the plane as well. To believe you are “30,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean with a bomb on board certainly has to be one of the most harrowing” experiences for the flight crew, Hall said.

Passengers apparently never knew about the threat.