According to KING 5 News, NORAD scrambled fighter jets to escort an Alaska Airlines flight from Kona, Hawaii, to Sea-Tac Airport, on the basis of a hoaxer’s phone call:
FBI officials said the Honolulu field office received a call suggesting there was a threat to Alaska Air Flight 819 and that an individual onboard was going to hijack the plane, according to NBC.
…
According to NBC sources, the man had slept through most of the flight and the crew on board said nothing out of the ordinary happened during the flight and they were never in any danger.
Alaska Airlines has confirmed that it was Flight 819, but otherwise has not tweeted about the incident.
If this was a prank, it wasn’t funny.
Whoever called in this hoax should be arrested. Not funny.
Fighter jets escort Alaska Air flight into SEA. http://t.co/3sWZuqE7 #crewlife
— Cristina BV (@wingedbabie) January 18, 2013
Do you have any idea how much it costs to scramble fighter jets like that? For what? Because you're mad at some guy? <rant rant rant>
— Lin S (@Just_this_time) January 18, 2013