Two F-15s scrambled from Portland to meet Alaska Airlines flight 819 in the middle of the Pacific last night because there was supposedly a hijacker on board. A hijacker probably named Mike Crotch, because there was really no hijacker at all — the whole thing was the result of a prank call.
The FBI’s field office in Hawaii got a tip saying a passenger on the Seattle-bound flight was planning to commandeer the plane. This supposed hacker was not acting at all suspicious and was just sleeping the entire time. The FBI thought the tip was probably bogus, but “out of an abundance of caution” and an abundance of wasted taxpayers money, it sent the two jets to escort the flight into Seattle anyway. And those damn kids still haven’t learned their lesson about prank calling. [KATU]