Airline passenger arrested for bomb threat

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — A North Carolina woman handed a flight attendant a threatening note about a gun and a bomb before locking herself in a bathroom and apparently lighting a match or smoking a cigarette, authorities said Friday. No firearms or explosives were found.

Sarah Ford, 24, of New Hill, N.C., was arrested at the St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport Thursday night after passengers of the Allegiant Airlines' flight banged on the bathroom door and a flight attendant alerted the captain.

The flight from Greensboro, N.C., landed safely after Ford opened the door and took a vacant seat, Pinellas County Sheriff's Office spokesman Jim Bordner. The flight attendant sprayed the bathroom with a fire extinguisher, he said.

"There was no evidence of a fire once deputies got on board and began examining the plane. It was probably cigarette smoke, that's the assumption or she lit a match," he said.

Airport spokeswoman Michele Routh said the flight landed on a runway away from the main terminal and authorities searched the plane for explosives.

"The aircraft was cleared, the flight pulled over to the terminal area," she said. "All of the procedures worked well and there was a favorable outcome."

Bordner said Ford was being held at the Pinellas County Jail on a $20,000 bond for allegedly making a bomb threat and a $10,000 bond for a criminal mischief charge. A first appearance was scheduled for later Friday, he said.

Ford's mother, Marjorie Ford, told The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., that her daughter was recently discharged from a state psychiatric facility.

Ford has been hospitalized in psychiatric facilities off and on in several different states for the past two years, suffering from paranoid delusions, her mother said.