AirCal Employee Is Accused of Phoning in Five Bomb Threats
Sheriff’s deputies arrested an AirCal flight operations supervisor at John Wayne Airport after he allegedly phoned in five bomb threats while on duty at the airport Thursday morning.
No bomb was found.
The suspect, Alvaro Enrique Pacheco, 28, of Laguna Beach, was arrested at the airport terminal around noon on felony charges of making a bomb threat, Sheriff’s Lt. Wyatt Hart said.
An AirCal spokeswoman said that Pacheco had worked for the airline for five years but declined further comment.
The calls to AirCal corporate headquarters began at 9:33 a.m. Thursday, with the caller saying that a bomb had been placed at the John Wayne Airport terminal and would go off at an unspecified time, Hart said. Three more calls were received at AirCal, and a last call was received at the Sheriff’s Department at 10:22 a.m. Authorities believe the calls were made from the terminal or in the immediate area of the terminal.
Lt. Hart said sheriff’s investigators were able to locate the suspect after implementing a special “bomb incident procedure.” But he would not elaborate on the nature of the operation.
Pacheco was booked into Orange County Jail on $10,000 bail.
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