Sources tell Action News they believe a passenger was behind a bomb threat on United Airlines flight 148.
Police believe it was a prank and not a very funny one for the 112 passengers and 5 crew members who have been interviewed.
While no announcements were made in the air, when flight 148 landed ahead of schedule in Philadelphia from Chicago O'Hare International Airport it was met by the FBI and bomb-sniffing dogs.
Authorities were alerted of the bomb threat when a crew member made a discovery 25 minutes into the flight.
"A flight attendant observed writing on the wall inside of the one rear lavatories of the plane," Chief Inspector Joe Sullivan of the Philadelphia Police said.
According to Sullivan, the writing stated, 'Bomb on. Will die.'
The decision was made to continue on to Philadelphia where the plane was evacuated and searched.
"They surrounded the plane and we were there for probably an hour and a half and they wouldn't let us off and then we had to get off one by one with a cop with a big gun," Lindsey Minnich of Reading, Pa. said.
Passengers were then boarded onto buses and taken to be interviewed while their luggage was rescreened.
Meanwhile, at the terminal, family and friends of the passengers waited for hours. Some were getting updates from loved ones by phone.
When they were finally released, the passengers were relieved to be safe.
"I'm glad I'm alive; there could have been a bomb and it could have gone off," one passenger told Action News.
TSA has released a statement on the incident:
"The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was notified by the flight crew on United Airlines flight 148 (ORD-PHL) that a suspicious message was found on board. The flight landed safely without incident at 6:55 p.m. EDT. Out of an abundance of caution, the plane was directed to a remote location and was met by law enforcement and TSA. All passengers were deplaned and are currently being interviewed by law enforcement. The aircraft cabin was swept with negative findings.
