OSAKA -- Airline security officials were given a scare Wednesday after a woman called to say she had received e-mail from a friend indicating his Japan Airlines flight had been hijacked -- a message that later turned out to be a prank.
According to Osaka and Kyoto Prefectural police, the woman, a resident of Kyoto, contacted authorities at around 10:30 a.m. saying she feared that the plane her male acquaintance had boarded -- a flight from Kansai International Airport to Seoul -- had been hijacked.
Officials, on alert after terrorist attacks involving hijacked aircraft in the United States earlier this month, rushed to confirm the report but discovered the e-mail the passenger sent to the woman from his cell phone was a hoax.
The man sent the e-mail at around 10:20 a.m., police said, adding that the e-mail included the phrase, "So it was Arabs after all."
The passenger also talked with the woman and said in a joking tone that the flight had been hijacked, they said.
According to JAL officials, the flight in question arrived safely in Seoul at 12:16 p.m., and South Korean police were questioning the man who sent the message.