Don't talk about Call of Duty on a plane: a FaceTime chat triggered an airport evacuation

[Daniel Sims]

Facepalm: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is among the latest in an unusually rapid string of well-regarded releases that made it to store shelves in the weeks leading up to Grand Theft Auto VI's launch, so people are naturally talking about it in public. However, fans should be careful to watch what they say while playing and discussing a military shooter at an airport to avoid a panic, as passengers in Ontario, California, learned this week.

According to Ontario police, a plane and the east wing of Terminal 2 at Ontario International Airport were evacuated on Sunday night after a passenger heard the words "bomb" and "explosion." It turned out the person mistook a conversation about Call of Duty for a bomb threat.

While detained, a person explained that they were playing Call of Duty on the plane before departure while talking with a friend over FaceTime. Someone else overheard them say "bomb" and "explosion" while describing the gameplay and alerted flight attendants. A sweep of the plane uncovered no explosive devices, and the flight eventually departed with everyone on board, including the detained person.

Police didn't reveal further details, but the person they detained might have been playing the latest Call of Duty title, Modern Warfare 4, on Nintendo Switch 2, the first portable device to receive a fully featured mainline entry. Critics have described Modern Warfare 4's campaign as the best in years, and the game launched to a warm reception on Steam on October 23. While being able to play the latest Call of Duty campaign on a flight might be novel enough to discuss over FaceTime, people should remember to avoid threatening-sounding language while traveling on public transportation, especially in Europe.

More than 20 flights between several European countries have been disrupted or diverted following hoax bomb threats over the past week. Most involved emails from unidentified individuals or groups claiming a bomb was aboard a plane, impacting flights to and from the United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, France, Belgium, Italy, Austria, the Czech Republic, Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, Poland, Denmark, and Finland. Broadcasters in the UK and Ireland also received threats, but no explosives were found in any of the incidents. While no perpetrators have been identified, suspicion has turned toward Russia.

Although the Ontario incident occurred on a different continent, authorities may have understandably approached the situation with extra caution.

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Don't talk about Call of Duty on a plane: a FaceTime chat triggered an airport evacuation

 

[Vanderkaum037]

Facetiming in public is a kind of terrorism IMHO.

 

[NumberNine]

Maybe have a bit of social awareness and don't talk about that kinda stuff on a flight. A lack of common sense usually leads to great headlines though.

 

[ScottSoapbox]

Maybe we should throw some shade on the person who reported an eavesdropping conversation that he wasn’t smart enough to understand.

I mean do you seriously think a terrorist is going to livestream this?

“Yes, the infidels don’t suspect me. I sure hope they aren’t listening into this English conversation about my planned secret attack.”

 

[DrSuess]

Never say bomb at the airport. At work we used to have a butt ugly van that someone nicknamed "The Bomb". My coworkers were at the airport and got detained because someone overheard one of them say I will wait here while you bring "The Bomb" around front. That set off a chain of unfortunate events.

 

[magoid]

I remember the news about 2 decades ago, when 2 Brazilian dudes with bad English skills were in a airport. Security asked them what the little machine they had was. In Portuguese, "air pump" is "bomba de ar"*. Not knowing the name in English, they answered "bomba", which security obviously took for "bomb".

So both dumbasses were immediately detained, and it took a while to find someone else who speak Portuguese to explain the whole situation.


*in Portuguese, "bomba" means both a explosive or a pump. So you have to be a ******* if you didn't see how that can go wrong in a foreign country's airport.

 

[stewi0001]

 

[New Day]

Maybe we should throw some shade on the person who reported an eavesdropping conversation that he wasn’t smart enough to understand.

I mean do you seriously think a terrorist is going to livestream this?

“Yes, the infidels don’t suspect me. I sure hope they aren’t listening into this English conversation about my planned secret attack.”

We can assume ANYTHING can happen today. AND we can require people to investigate rather than brain chirp and run ta momma. Alas, civilians. To this day, I have encountered not even a SLIVER of information indicating the 9/11 flights had Marines on-board. Very curious.