A 24-year-old man has been let off with a conditional discharge after he joked to a ground staff member at Malta Airport last week that he had a “bomb” in his bag. Jure Virant, a Slovenian delivery man, was waiting to board a Ryanair flight back to Zagreb when a ground handler approached him and asked him to place the bag in the baggage sizer. After measuring the bag, the ground handler told him it was “oversized”, and he would need to pay an extra sixty euros. Mr Virant argued that he had travelled from Zagreb with the same bag and had not been charged so could not understand why he should pay the fee for the return trip. He eventually agreed to pay up, but while the ground handler was placing a tag on Mr Virant's bag, she asked him if he had any electronics in the bag, to which he replied, “there is a bomb”. Mr Virant said he immediately told her he was joking, and CCTV footage of the incident showed him laughing. However, the woman informed her superiors. Airport security and the police were also informed. She told the police Mr Virant was “very serious” when telling her about the “bomb” in his luggage.

The luggage had already been screened prior to the incident and was screened a second time afterwards. The prosecution spoke to the ground handler who said she was “fearful” when hearing the word “bomb”. After taking into consideration the circumstances of the case, the accused was conditionally discharged, provided he does not commit another offence for a year. The court said, “You are 24, and you were joking. But she [the ground handler] had to do what she had to do due to her responsibilities and duties and did not realise it was a joke”.