Bomb scare delays Spirit Airlines flight in Florida

A passenger on board a Spirit Airlines flight to Dallas talked about the tense moments between two men that began to fight over a phone.  

The flight from Fort Lauderdale didn't take off until hours after it was supposed to because someone on that plane believed another passenger sent a text message about a bomb.

The Broward County Sheriff's Office says the bomb threat was unfounded but began when an air traffic controller who was traveling as a passenger on the Spirit flight reported seeing a message on a cellphone that belonged to the man sitting next to him.

Becky Hale called it the most frightening moment of her life as a Spirit jetliner headed for DFW from Fort Lauderdale was stopped, and a flight attendant took the phone away

"We had just pulled away from the gate, and the person on the row in front of me on the aisle started wrestling with the person next to him. And then he started yelling, 'What's that saying? It says bomb complete! Bomb complete!’” Hale recalled. “The gentleman with the phone told the flight attendant to turn it on and check the message, and then everybody said don't turn the phone on."

Two hours passed before police boarded the plane and escorted the two men off. Another passenger, Alex Zapata, captured that on cellphone video.

"One lady jumped up and tried to open the emergency door because the crew wasn't able to give any answers,” Hale recalled. “It wasn't pretty. People were swearing at the poor flight attendant, and she did the best job that she could."

Hale says passengers were finally taken off the plane without their belongings and bused back to the terminal before being allowed to go back four at a time and retrieve their belongings.

Those headed to Dallas eventually re-boarded and arrived at DFW about nine hours after the incident started. Those with connecting flights were re-booked and flew out later in the day.

The two men taken off the plane were interviewed by a special agent with the FBI who found no threat, but it certainly left passengers shaken.

"It was definitely the scariest thing I have ever seen,” said Hale. “I just wanted to get home to my kids, and I just wanted to make sure I saw them again.”

A spokesman for Spirit said that all questions are being referred to the Broward County Sheriff's Office.