A flight from Panama to Florida was diverted back to its airport on Friday after a suspicious object was found in the plane’s bathroom and mistaken for a bomb. The object turned out to be an adult diaper wrapped in a black plastic bag, but the crew and all 144 passengers aboard the plane had to be redirected back to the airport so that security could identify the suspicious object, according to the Associated Press.
There’s a joke somewhere in here about dropping a bomb in the toilet, but I’m not sure I can legally joke about it. I don’t want to be put on a “No Fly” list with Copa Airlines, the carrier that operates the Boeing 737-800 that had undertaken flight CM393, as the AP reports. The flight was headed for Tampa after taking off from Panama City on Friday morning, but was reportedly halfway through its journey when it was diverted, per flight records on Flight Aware.
The Boeing landed on a secure runway where airport security and the Panama National Police were waiting to board the plane and identify the strange object.
Authorities dispatched canine units as well as members of the special forces equipped to disarm explosives, but the bomb threat turned out to be a false alarm caused by the disposable adult diaper. Roughly translated, the Twitter statement from the police reads:
After being alerted by [Panama’s Civil Aeronautics Authority ] of a strange object at an airline, Special Forces units initiated emergency protocol, and upon verification it turned out to be a disposable adult diaper. #Prevention
As you can see, the Twitter (currently known as X) post was captioned by police with the hashtag “Prevention.” But just what prevention alludes to is vague as caution could apply to multiple scenarios in this case. Are the police in support of preventing serious disasters at airports? Or do they publicly support the prevention of soiling oneself while unprepared? Maybe both.
Copa Airlines’ flight CM393 did eventually make it to Florida, but it landed at around 7:00 PM local time after having been apparently scheduled for landing in the early afternoon.
