Bomber on board the plane

The snow on the Danish and German roads made the trip to Hamburg Airport longer than usual. It was a good thing we left home in good time. We were able to eat just in time before we had to check in. We found a real local restaurant where we enjoyed a German specialty - wiener schnitzel - before continuing on to Dubai with a stopover in Istanbul. We flew with Turkish Airlines. The plane from Istanbul to Dubai was unfortunately 50 minutes late. In principle, it didn't matter to us, as we arrive in Dubai in the morning, where it is too early to check in at the hotel anyway. So a later departure was perfectly fine. The reason was that the plane had to be replaced with another, which would take a little longer to prepare. When the plane was about to take off, there was sudden confusion in the cabin. Much of the conversation was in Turkish, so we couldn't follow what was happening. Over the loudspeaker, the captain asked the passengers to remain calm. The cabin crew had taken one person out. Now they walked around, opened cupboards and checked the toilets. A Turkish man seemed to know one of the stewards. He was at least informed about what was happening. He was kind enough to translate for us: A Russian passenger had said that he had a bomb on board the plane. Don't worry, the Turk said: It's just a bad joke, but the cabin crew will take it seriously, so they have taken the man out for questioning, and he will probably not be allowed on the plane again. After such a message, we weren't sure if we wanted to continue flying. The cabin crew didn't systematically search the plane. It looked as if they were opening random overhead lockers to check hand luggage. But they said they were doing exactly what their procedure required of them... There were a lot of Russians on the plane. Several of them were sitting there saying "boom, boom". They thought it was hilarious that someone had joked about a bomb on board. They didn't seem to think at all about all the people who would arrive late. Who might miss their next flight. The amount of money it costs the airline to delay a flight. But luckily we arrived safely in Dubai :o)