SINGAPORE: A man who made a bomb threat on a Singapore Airlines flight was on Friday (Nov 4) sentenced to four weeks’ jail on Friday (Nov 4) for slapping a cabin crew member.
He was given a discharge amounting to acquittal for making the bomb threat, after the prosecution indicated last month that it intends to give him a stern warning.
La Andy Hien Duc, 37, pleaded guilty to one count of voluntarily causing hurt on board flight SQ33 from San Francisco to Singapore on Sep 28.
As the jail term is backdated since his first date of remand on Sep 29, he will not serve any additional jail time.
The American was originally charged in September with one count each of slapping a man’s cheeks and using threatening words by stating there was a bomb on the flight.
The incident triggered the deployment of Republic of Singapore Air Force F-16C/D fighter jets, which escorted the plane safely to Changi Airport.
Officers from the Airport Police Division and Special Operations Command’s K-9 Unit, as well as the Singapore Armed Forces’ Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Explosives Defence Group, were mobilised to investigate the threat, which turned out to be false.
La Andy Hien Duc’s lawyer Johannes Hadi told CNA in October that his client suffers from schizophrenia.
The court heard on Oct 27 that the prosecution intends to administer a stern warning to the accused after reviewing the report from the Institute of Mental Health.
For voluntarily causing hurt, he could have been jailed for up to three years, fined up to S$5,000, or both.
The charge of using threatening words likely to cause alarm carries a fine of up to S$5,000.