Man arrested for bomb comment says he was joking

A 75-year-old Chicago man arrested after officials say he told a flight attendant at Long Island-MacArthur Airport that there was a bomb in his bag apologized Monday as he left a Suffolk police precinct.

"I'm sorry, it was a joke," said Draco Slaughter as he was led in handcuffs from the Fifth Precinct in Patchogue, where he was held overnight before his arraignment.

Slaughter was on a Southwest Airlines flight from Chicago's Midway airport Sunday that arrived at MacArthur about 2:35 p.m. en route to West Palm Beach, officials said.

After the plane landed, Slaughter retrieved his bag from the rear of the plane and placed it on a seat across the aisle. When the flight attendant asked who owned the bag, Slaughter said it was his and that it contained a bomb, authorities said.

The flight attendant told the pilot, and the plane was met at the gate by airport police, Transportation Security Administration officials, and the FBI. The plane was evacuated and searched; nothing dangerous was found. The flight took off about two hours late, airport officials said.

After being met by law enforcement, Slaughter acknowledged that he'd said that "there could be a bomb," in his bag, according to the criminal complaint filed against him.

At First District Court in Central Islip, dressed in white pants and a shirt from a West Palm Beach bowling alley, Slaughter shook his head repeatedly as a Suffolk prosecutor described the alleged threat. At one point Slaughter tried to speak to the judge, prompting his legal aid attorney to interrupt him and advise him not to.

The attorney entered a plea of not guilty on Slaughter's behalf and said Slaughter was innocent. The charge of falsely reporting an incident in a public place is a Class D felony carrying a maximum sentence of 7 years in prison. A message left at Slaughter's Chicago home was not returned.

District Court Judge William Ford ordered Slaughter held on $50,000 cash bail. He is due back in court on Friday.

With John Valenti