Man running late for flight makes fake bomb threat to delay takeoff, feds say

A Michigan man arriving at the Detroit airport too late to board his California-bound flight called in a fake bomb threat to delay its takeoff, federal officials reported.

John Charles Robinson, 23, of Monroe, Michigan, was arrested a day later on Friday, June 6, when he arrived at the airport to board another flight, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan said in a news release.

Robinson was turned away at the gate for Spirit Airlines Flight 2145, bound for Los Angeles, after arriving late at Detroit Metropolitan Airport on Thursday, June 5, prosecutors said.

At 6:25 a.m., Robinson used a cell phone to call the airline to make a false threat about a bomb on the airliner, prosecutors said.

“There’s gonna be someone that’s gonna try to blow up that flight, 2145,” Robinson said, according to prosecutors. He gave a fake description of the supposed bomber.

“They’re still threatening to do it, they’re still (attempting) to do it, they said it’s not going to be able to be detected. Please don’t let that flight board,” he said, according to prosecutors.

Robinson later confessed he hoped to delay takeoff so he would not miss the flight, the Detroit Free Press reported.

Instead, authorities removed passengers from the airliner, canceled the flight and searched the plane with bomb-sniffing dogs, prosecutors said. No explosives were found.

The passengers boarded another flight to Los Angeles later that day, according to The Detroit News.

Robinson rebooked his flight and was arrested when he returned to the airport on charges including using a cellphone to threaten/maliciously convey false information in an attempt or alleged attempt to damage or destroy an airplane using an explosive, the newspaper reported.

“No American wants to hear the words ‘bomb’ and ‘airplane’ in the same sentence,” said U.S. Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon, Jr., in the release. “Making this kind of threat undermines our collective sense of security and wastes valuable law enforcement resources

In a statement to WWJ-TV, Spirit Airlines said the “safety of our Guests and Team Members is our top priority.”

This story was originally published June 8, 2025 at 1:29 PM with the headline "Man running late for flight makes fake bomb threat to delay takeoff, feds say."