Allegiant flight attendant finds bomb threat just before St. Pete-Clearwater International departure: Sheriff

Allegiant passengers onboard a flight that was supposed to head out of St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport Friday evening was quickly deplaned after the crew found a written bomb threat. 

The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office quickly swarmed the airport after the threat was reported by crew members on that Allegiant Air flight. They said the flight landed at the airport about two hours prior to the incident from Cincinnati and was scheduled to depart PIE to head back to Cincinnati that same evening with about 170 passengers. 

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Timeline:

As the flight was taxiing to the runway, preparing for its departure, a flight attendant onboard opened the plane's rear lavatory door and found a written bomb threat. That's when the flight attendant notified the pilot, who immediately stopped the plane and helped work to evacuate passengers, according to investigators. 

Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said during a news conference after the incident on Friday that the threat was "very broad" and wasn't limited to the particular plane, and included all Allegiant planes at the airport. 

Because of that, authorities said they secured all six aircrafts and began getting all passengers off the planes and clearing them. PCSO's bomb dogs were also out and searching all the planes. 

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Gualtieri said that deputies did not find any evidence of explosive devices on any of the planes. 

Gualtieri said detectives are interviewing passengers that were on the plane with a written threat. The sheriff didn't go into detail about any suspect they may have or who may be responsible for the threat. 

"We do have some people that their actions were suspicious and were looking into it," he said. 

PCSO is still in the early stages of their investigation, but no injuries were reported during the security incident, according to officials. 

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What they're saying:

A spokesperson for Allegiant Air released the following statement about the incident: 

"On 4/25/2025, Flight 2006, scheduled to depart St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport (PIE) at 3:59 p.m. local time bound for Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG), was delayed due to a possible security issue. The safety of our passengers and crew is always our priority. Because this is an active investigation, we must defer to law enforcement for additional information."

All planes were grounded for several hours, but the airport has since resumed normal operations. 

Local perspective:

"All of a sudden we saw the police cars out on the tarmac, saw the plane out there with the police surrounding it. They said the flight was delayed, and then they evacuated the airport," said traveler Ted Henschen. 

Jim Seay and his wife, Sara, were on that flight bound for Cincinnati when the plane stopped and evacuated all its passengers. 

"Everyone did move off the plane extremely fast," said Jim Seay. "Emergency exits were not used. Everybody went out the regular entryway and as soon as you were off the plane there was an expedited effort to move people away from the plane."

"Unfortunately, some idiot made a comment and threw everything into chaos," said Henschen. 

Passengers on the plane that had the written bomb threat were held in a contained area for several hours as about 20 detectives conducted interviews. Investigators are trying to determine if the message was written at the start of this flight or the previous one.

"We just want to get their information, get basic background, who saw what, did anybody, did they see people using the restroom," said Gualtieri.

The Source: The information in this story was gathered during a news conference held Friday evening. It also includes details from Allegiant Air and the FAA. 

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