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Bomb Threat May Be 'Cry For Help'

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By CARLOS MONCADA, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 15, 2007

CLEARWATER - A 24-year-old woman charged with making a bomb threat Thursday on a plane from Greensboro, N.C., had been released from a North Carolina mental hospital despite her mother's objections, the woman's father said.

Buddy Ford, a business lawyer in Tampa, said his ex-wife Marjorie had their schizophrenic daughter, Sarah Beth Ford, committed to Dorothea Dix Hospital in Raleigh in May. She was released a month or two later from the state psychiatric hospital, he said.

'The reason they let her go against her mother's request is they did recognize her paranoid schizophrenia, but didn't consider her a danger to herself or anyone else,' Ford said. 'Apparently that's not the case now.'

Authorities said Sarah Ford threatened to blow up Allegiant Air Flight 864 while the plane was preparing to land at St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport about 10 p.m. Thursday.

With the help of passengers, Ford was detained and arrested minutes later, after the plane landed safely.

It was two days after the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, and people on board were mindful of the connection.

'You could see that there wasn't a passenger on that plane that wasn't going to do what they had to do. It was a really good feeling,' passenger Kathy Morton said. 'You could tell everybody was like, 'Nobody's going to do this to us again.''

The FBI questioned Ford but did not pursue federal charges against her, a Pinellas County Sheriff's Office spokesman said Friday. Ford was being held at the Pinellas County Jail on charges of making a bomb threat and criminal mischief. Bail was set at $30,000.

Buddy Ford, 54, called his daughter 'a troubled kid' who, since age 16, has been in and out of mental health centers in Virginia, North Carolina and Florida, including one in Boca Raton last year.

'I don't think she's a danger to anyone other than herself,' he said. 'She weighs 110 pounds.'

Ford said he has not seen his daughter for about two years and did not know why she was coming to the Tampa Bay area.

'She used to spend the summers with me,' he said. 'So she does have people here in Florida where she has contacts. Maybe she was coming down to see someone.'

Ford said he last spoke to his daughter a few months ago, shortly after her release from Dorothea Dix Hospital. She called and said she was working at a restaurant in Virginia Beach, Va.

'She calls me occasionally, but she wouldn't leave a phone number,' he said.

Administrators at Dorothea Dix referred questions to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. Mark Van Sciver, a spokesman for the state agency, said he could not comment on the circumstances regarding Ford's release, citing federal privacy laws.

Thursday's altercation began when Ford headed for a bathroom at the rear of the plane while a flight attendant was instructing passengers to remain seated with their seat belts fastened.

Ford was ordered back to her seat, at which point she handed the flight attendant a note before entering the bathroom. The note made reference to a gun and a bomb, with instructions not to alert other passengers.

The captain was notified immediately and contacted air-traffic controllers. Meanwhile, the flight attendant and several passengers tried to open the locked bathroom door.

Ford suddenly opened the door, and an odor of smoke was detected from the small compartment. The attendant sprayed a fire extinguisher into the bathroom, and Ford was moved to a vacant seat on the plane until it landed.

Bomb-sniffing dogs checked the bathroom, the plane and the woman's carry-on luggage, but no explosives were found.

'Maybe this is a cry for help,' Buddy Ford said. 'We're trying to get her into a medical facility. She does not need to be in jail.'

Information from News Channel 8 was used in this report. Reporter Carlos Moncada can be reached at (727) 451-2333 or cmoncada@tampatrib.com.

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