Wednesday, February 01, 2017

Bomb comment was 'misunderstanding,' says man accused of airport threat

An Indian man charged with making a threat at the Grand Forks International Airport Saturday morning characterized the event as an unfortunate misunderstanding in moment of frustration during an interview with the Herald Tuesday.

Paraman Radhakrishnan, 53, was charged with terrorizing, a Class C felony, after authorities responded to the airport at about 5 a.m. Saturday where an employee told them Radhakrishnan said there was a bomb in his bag after being told he would not be able to board his flight.

But sitting in the living room of Grand Forks real estate agent Jack Wadhawan, he said the story is one of tired, frustrated people having a misunderstood conversation.

"It was just a bad day for an upset passenger and a stressed airport employee," Radhakrishnan said.
Radhakrishnan is an energy efficiency consultant from Vadodara, India. He said he spent last week in Roseau, Minn., working with Polaris. He and his colleagues left Roseau at about midnight Saturday to reach Grand Forks for their flight. He said he got his ticket, checked his bag and moved through the Transportation Security Administration checkpoint without incident.

At the gate, Radhakrishnan said he and other passengers were informed the flight, Delta flight 4803 operated by SkyWest Airlines, was overbooked and that they would have to drive to Minneapolis to catch their connecting flight back to India.

The flight departed and landed on-time in Minneapolis, despite the incident. Airline officials told the Herald Monday that they were made aware of the incident after the plane had departed and the decision whether or not to ground the plane was left up to federal and local law enforcement.

Radhakrishnan said he was offered a flight voucher by Delta, and a rental car to drive to the airport. When he requested his bag, he was told it would be waiting for him in Minneapolis and was already on the plane, which was departing.

He told the Herald he was shocked that the bag had not been removed, because in international travel, bags are removed from flights if the passenger is not on board. Radhakrishnan said he was upset and told the ticketing agent that it was a security violation.

"I said, 'What if there was a bomb in the bag?' " Radhakrishnan said.

According to a court affidavit, an airport employee told police Radhakrishnan said "There is a bomb in the bag" after he became upset that he could not retrieve the luggage.

The situation did not immediately escalate, he said, rather the employee said something to another worker and he was under the impression that he was still receiving a travel voucher. Instead, about 15 minutes later, he was under arrest.

"It was just bad communication," he said.
Minutes later, the bomb squad showed up and he was in the back seat of a police cruiser.

Radhakrishnan said he was treated well by Grand Forks Police, and later was treated with respect at the Grand Forks County Correctional Center.
31/01/17  Andrew Hazzard/Grand Forks Herald
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