Phony Airline Bomb Threat Leads to Prison

A British man was sentenced Thursday to 18 months in prison for making a phony bomb threat to prevent a friend from missing her plane at Philadelphia International Airport.

Ilyas Savas, who was 33 at the time of his arrest, pleaded guilty in September to phoning a hotel at the airport in June and claiming that someone was planning to stash bombs aboard two American Airlines flights, one from Philadelphia to Boston and a second from Boston to London.

Authorities halted the Philadelphia flight on the runway so the plane could be searched.

A flight from Boston to London also was delayed.

Investigators later learned that Savas called in the threat from his home in Hackney, England, at the request of a friend from New Jersey who was due to leave Philadelphia on the plane but had realized that she did not have her passport and would not be allowed aboard.

The plan, prosecutors said, was to give the friend, Hatice Ceylan, 18, time to retrieve her travel papers.

Savas then flew from London to Philadelphia, where he was arrested along with Ceylan when they tried to redeem her unused tickets. They were interrogated by the Joint Terrorism Task Force.

Savas pleaded guilty in September to giving false information about a bomb. He has been held in federal prison.

U.S. District Court Judge Michael M. Baylson ordered Savas to pay $9,075 in restitution to American Airlines plus $100 to each passenger aboard the canceled flight.

Ceylan also pleaded guilty. She is to be sentenced Feb. 2.