A plane was delayed and an elderly woman removed from an aircraft at Denver International Airport after she joked she was carrying a detonator.

The woman was questioned by police on Wednesday after she apparently jested that she had an explosive device in her bag.

The flight crew on Southwest Airlines Flight 3687 notified Transportation Security Administration officials that a passenger had made an appropriate comment while the plane was at the gate.
 

Bad joke: An elderly woman was removed from a Southwest Airlines plane on Wednesday for 'joking' that she had a detonator in her bag

Concerned for passenger safety, the pilot also called police and asked the woman to get off the plane.

Laurie Hansen who was on board the aircraft said: 'When we looked up we saw some police officers in the front and we saw an older woman really rattled, trying to get her stuff'.

A flight attendant relayed to Hansen that when the old lady handed her bag to the crew member she jokingly said, 'Oh, be careful with my bag, it has a detonator in it'.
'Oh, be careful with my bag, it has a detonator in it'
 


A nearby passenger heard the statement and said, 'If that was me they would have thrown me off the plane'. The woman's comment was not ignored because of her age and was taken seriously.

Hansen said she believed the woman had misused the word detonator and meant defibrillator or another kind of medical device.

She said the woman seemed to be very weak and the flight attendant told several passengers that she may have been on some kiond of medication that clouded her thinking.

 Another passenger told Hansen he had seen the woman earlier and he thought she had Alzheimer's or some other medical condition.

The flight was apparently delayed for 45 minutes while officers removed the woman's luggage from inside the plane and and the baggage hold.

The plane was traveling from DIA to Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina.

TSA officials said the elderly woman, who has not been identified, was interviewed by police but release soon after and allowed to rebook her flight.


*By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 11:55 PM on 22nd October 2010