The scene at Tacloban Airport after the bomb joke. (Ellson Quismorio/ MANILA BULLETIN)

TACLOBAN CITY, Leyte--A Philippine Airlines (PAL) flight that was supposed to carry dozens of House of Representatives members to Manila on Friday night, Aug. 2 ended up being delayed for a few hours after an elderly passenger made a bomb joke. 

PAL flight PR 2988 was on schedule to leave Daniel Romualdez Airport here at 6:40 p.m., when a wheel-chaired elderly woman who was among the first to board the aircraft cracked a bomb joke to the flight attendants.

As standard operating procedure, the joke was taken as a serious threat by PAL staff. 

Boarding procedures were promptly suspended for the rest of the passengers, which led to the flight being "put on hold". 

A reported 71 congressmen, particularly those who joined the launch of the Bagong Pilipinas Serbisyo Fair (BPSF)-Eastern Visayas event here, were booked for the flight. They were shuffled to a holding room while responding law enforcers sorted out the incident. 

At one point, bomb-sniffing dogs were deployed to check on the luggages of the passengers left stranded at the boarding gate. No explosives were found. 

The plane can carry over 200 people. 

The plane--with all the solons in tow--finally took off at past 8:40 p.m.

It landed safely at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in Pasay City at 9:59 p.m.

READ THIS:

https://mb.com.ph/2024/8/2/quorum-achieved-as-241-house-members-attend-eastern-visayas-service-fair

The elderly woman who caused the furor ultimately wasn't allowed to board the flight.

Needless to say, the bomb joke created a lot of inconvenience and undue worry to the passengers. 

But it was perhaps Taguig-Pateros Rep. Ricardo "Ading" Cruz Jr. who most eloquently summed up everybody's frustration when he said, "Gusto ko na umuwi, nami-miss ko na asawa ko, pero inabala pa ako ng bomb threat na ito!"

(I want to go home, I miss my wife, but this bomb threat has caused a delay!)