Fake hostage situation at Daytona airport had red flags

DAYTONA BEACH — Someone using a spoofed number called the sheriff's office and claimed he was holding three flight attendants from British Airways hostage in the Daytona Beach International Airport lobby.

The caller wanted $20,000 or he would "(expletive deleted) kill these people. I swear to God."

But some big red flags alerted deputies that the call wasn't a true threat.

For one, British Airways doesn't fly out of Daytona Beach. Another? The airport wasn't even open at just after 4 a.m. Monday when the call was made.

Those telling signs led Volusia County Sheriff's Office deputies to limit the reaction and response, according to an incident report. The office already had one patrol at the airport and when the deputies canvassed the area, they found no threat.

There was no hostage situation. No danger. Just an "idiot" with a phone and some tech skills, said the sheriff.

[READ MORE: Hurricane Dorian scam alert: FDLE warns of ‘spoofing’]

"Had it been with a carrier that we had and the airport open, the response would have been a little bit different," said Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood in a phone interview Thursday.

The department suspects it was a hoax call to generate a massive emergency response from police, a practive known as "swatting." Callers use technology to make their call look like it is coming from a different number and can disguise their voice, according to the sheriff.

That means the call could have come from anywhere. So now, FBI agents are on the hunt for the caller.

Breathing heavily in audio recorded from the Sheriff's Office non-emergency line, a man calling himself "John Raizes" said he had taken three flight attendants hostage and would kill them if he didn't receive $20,000 in 10 minutes.

But the name given was fake. And the sheriff's department has handed the case over to the Daytona Beach Federal Bureau of Investigation.

"I'd like to rip his tongue out of his mouth if we can catch him," said Chitwood. "I'd probably lose my job for that."

Chitwood said this time, the airport call didn't have a detrimental result, but sometimes the calls do and they jeopardize public safety, create panic and economically disturb the airport, which ticks the Sheriff off.

"We haven't had one in a while," said the sheriff. "For a while there, it was all the rage and… somebody got killed as a result."

Earlier this year, Tyler Barriss, a serial swatter whose hoax call led to the death of a Wichita, Kansas man in 2017, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for his role in the killing.

Back in August, The U.S. Coast Guard out of St. Petersburg captured threats made by a caller using marine band radio. The agency asked for help today in trying to find the culprit.

In the August 13 call, a male caller threatens to shoot down jets and set off bombs to "sink your ships" in the Gulf of Mexico.

The agency thinks it could be a serial hoax caller.

"The broadcast sounds like the same person who has made other radio broadcasts that start with MAYDAY three times and then talks about, 'scrambling all jets we are under nuclear attack,'" the report states.

Penalties for making false distress calls and hoaxes can include up to 10 years in prison, $250,000 in fines, plus the cost of a search.

“Hoax calls are costly to the taxpayer and our service,” said Charles ‘Marty’ Russell, resident agent-in-charge of the Coast Guard Investigative Service office in St. Petersburg. “When the Coast Guard receives a distress call, we immediately respond, putting our crews at risk, and risking the lives of boaters who may legitimately need our help.”

This week's call isn't the first time the airport has had to respond to odd threats. A few years ago a naked man threatened to blow up the airport during actual business hours and both the department and the airport's response was much more severe.

[READ MORE: Sheriff: Naked man threatened to bomb Daytona Beach airport]

Chitwood said as for the general public, they shouldn't panic or be afraid to fly because of these occasional and sometimes bizarre threats.

And to the "knuckleheads who think this is funny?"

"Sooner or later, you're gonna get caught," said Chitwood. "And that's not funny."

If anyone has information leading to the identification of the Coast Guard hoax caller, they can call the Coast Guard Investigative Service St. Petersburg at (727) 535-1437 extension 2308.

Anyone who can provide information about the airport caller can call the Sheriff's Office's non-emergency line for the communications center at 386-748-1777.

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