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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Airplane Bomb Hoaxer|Faces up to Five Years

LOS ANGELES (CN) - A disgruntled former United Airlines employee pleaded guilty to making eight false bomb threats against the airline from pay phones around the country.

Patrick Cau aka Patrick Kaiser, 40, a German citizen, admitted in a plea agreement that he intentionally give false information to United Airlines and 911 operators between October 2012 and January this year.

Cau, who recently moved from Dallas to Los Angeles, faces up to five years in federal prison at his Nov. 18 sentencing.

"In the first phone call, on Oct. 4, 2012, Cau used a pay phone near his home to call an internal United crew-scheduling number and state that a United flight from London to Los Angeles would be bombed later that day," the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement.

"The subsequent calls were made from pay phones in Los Angeles, New York City, Las Vegas and Seattle to 911, with all of the calls stating that a specific United flight would be bombed."

The hoaxes caused United and its customers "substantial disruption," including cancellations and delays.

Passengers were evacuated and searched. The jets were moved into containment areas, where officials and police dogs searched them.

Cau must pay United $267,912 for its troubles, and an "as-yet-undetermined amount" to the agencies that responded to the bomb threats, prosecutors said.

Cau was indicted in May. He worked for United for 15 years, climbing the ladder to the position of head flight attendant.

American Airlines hired him as trainee attendant but he was fired in April after appearing on a government no-fly list, the Canadian Press reported.

Cau's attorney John Duran told the Canadian Press that Cau had filed a sexual-harassment case against a male supervisor at United that "didn't go anywhere."

"There was an actual basis for his unhappiness with United," Duran said. "He's a good guy who made some really poor decisions."

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