Dover Man Jailed Over Bomb Claim

4 April 2011, 13:52 | Updated: 4 April 2011, 14:01

A bungling smuggler failed to leave Britain after he was hauled from a plane following a drunken rant in which he leered: ``there is a bomb on this plane'' and ``you are all going to die''.

Passengers were left terrified when Ronald Fowles and a fellow traveller were allowed to board a flight bound for Dubai while ``out of their heads'' following a heavy drinking session at London's Heathrow Airport.

Fowles, a benefit claimant who had set out to illegally import cigarettes to the UK, was later dragged from the aircraft after shouting: ``I'll kill you, I'll kill you.''

Earlier, as armed police stormed on board, the 59-year-old informed those seated around him: ``To blow up a plane all you need is two bags of sugar and some water.''

The saga, which took place on Emirates flight EK004 as it taxied to a runway last January, cost the airline #42,397.95.

Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith today handed Fowles, of Dover, Kent, a four-month jail sentence at Southwark Crown Court.

But the defendant, who admitted one count of being drunk on an aircraft, was allowed to walk free because he has already served seven days in custody and spent 220 days on curfew.

The crown offered no evidence relating to a second charge of making a bomb threat.

A second man Alexander McGinn, 49, who had accompanied Fowles on his would-be smuggling mission, was acquitted of being drunk on the same aircraft after no evidence was offered against him.