Caribbean Airlines (CAL) last week assured customers that there were no ongoing issues relating to a flight between Trinidad and Tobago and the John F Kennedy (JFK) International Airport in New York, noting what it said was an “erroneous” social media post relating to a March 17 flight.
A post by Captain Steeeve (Steve Scheibner), a retired American Airlines Boeing 777 captain and former US Navy pilot detailing an audio interaction between a CAL flight (BW528) and Air Traffic Control at JFK recently went viral, amassing nearly 700,000 views on YouTube alone.
Titled “Caribbean Airlines flight Treated like High jacking,” the video analyses the interaction, during which Scheibner states he had never heard certain questions being asked by ATC controllers before.
At one point in the ATC submission, a controller asks, “Caribbean 528, when you have a chance, do you have souls on board and fuel remaining in pounds?”
Scheiber reacts to that clip, stating, “What? They’re treating this like an emergency. Like they’re asking them the normal questions with an emergency. These guys haven’t declared an emergency.”
Later in the video, he states, “All right, so having said all of that, this ends up being kind of a nothing burger at the end of the day. I don’t know what they determined out of all of this, but maybe somebody sent in a bomb threat. Maybe somebody said there was a terrorist or a bad guy on board.”
In a statement posted to its website on April 4, CAL said it wished to advise that the matter involved a fake bomb threat which had been addressed at the time of the incident.
“Flight BW 528 landed safely and all passengers and crew disembarked without incident. Caribbean Airlines activated and followed all established safety and security protocols in coordination with the relevant authorities.”
“There are no ongoing issues related to this flight. Customers are encouraged to rely on the airline’s official communication channels for verified updates,” it said.
