Two Accused of Phony Plane-Bomb Threat

PHILADELPHIA – A bomb threat against two American Airlines flights was a hoax to allow a traveler time to retrieve her passport, the FBI said Friday.

Hatice Ceylan, 18, and Ilyas Savas, 33, were charged in federal court with violations including conspiracy, said Jeffrey A. Lampinki, special agent in charge for the FBI’s Philadelphia office.

The suspects had been scheduled to fly Wednesday from Philadelphia to Boston and then to London, but Ceylan forgot her passport, the FBI said.

Savas allegedly called in the bomb threat to a hotel Wednesday morning to give Ceylan time to get the document.

Nineteen passengers were evacuated from the Philadelphia-Boston flight and were rescreened while the plane was searched. Nothing was found, but the flight was canceled anyway. The Boston-London flight also was searched before it was allowed to take off with 159 passengers, officials said.

It was not immediately clear if either defendant had a lawyer.

Ceylan, of Edgewater Park, N.J., does not have a listed phone number. Savas lives in London, authorities said.