No devices were found. The man was taken into custody after the Sunday afternoon incident on Southwest Airlines Flight 373, a Boeing 737 carrying 137 passengers and five crew members.
Suffolk County police say the 75-year-old suspect was arrested on a charge of first-degree falsely reporting an incident.
Southwest Airlines spokeswoman Olga Romero says the suspect made the comment to a flight attendant while deplaning.
The flight was delayed about two hours while police inspected the aircraft.
The flight was making a scheduled stop at the Long Island airport before leaving for West Palm Beach, Fla., at about 5 p.m.
