A Singaporean man, aged 22, has been fined SGD 3,500 in court today for one count of making a threatening communication seen by others and likely to cause alarm. He had posted on Instagram — supposedly as a ‘joke’ — a threat to blow up an Etihad Airways plane taking off from Changi International Airport.
As a result of the threat, the flight was delayed while the threat was probed, and the airline had to pay SGD 1,750 (USD 1,355) as late departure fee, said a CNA report.
Most surprising of all, the convict, Azim Shah Abubakar Shah, was a national serviceman with the Singapore Civil Defence Force. He was travelling overseas on vacation earlier this year when he cracked this sick joke. He was fined today for the offence.
His post had been discovered by the a member of the law enforcement team of Meta (the parent company of Instagram) and the Singapore Police Force was informed at about 7.20pm on 14 February 2025.
The Meta law enforcement team member reported detecting an Instagram story post that said: “No one here knows I’m gonna blow the plane up.” Meta also shared with Singapore Police the IP address and the phone number linked to the user account. These helped the police track down Azim.
Upon investigation, it was found that Azim was already sitting on an Etihad Airways flight that was departing from Singapore and going to Abu Dhabi.
As soon as the threat was reported to the Singapore Police Force and Azim’s flight was identified, the aircraft — it was already on the Changi Airport runway — was recalled to Terminal 2. The offender was taken off the plane. His luggage was searched.
When questioned, Azim admitted to posting the Instagram story, at 6.55pm. He claimed that the post was a joke. But his little joke cost the airline two-and-a-half hours of precious time, and the flight was cleared for departure only at 9.25pm that day.
He was arrested early on February 15, but was later given bail.
In court today, the public prosecutor sought a fine of SGD 4,000 for Azim, considering his relative youth, lack of convictions, and early plea of guilt. The defence lawyer sought a fine of SGD 1,000. The highest fine he could have got for this offence was SGD 5,000.
Considering the seriousness of Azim’s offence — he had caused a major delay and significant inconvenience for the passengers, and forced the airline to incur a late departure fee — his fine was settled at an amount close to what Prosecution wanted.
Defence argued that Azim’s “misguided” joke was directed at only 16 close friends on Instagram. “He did not appreciate that such a post, particularly when he was due to fly shortly, would cause public alarm even if disseminated to a ‘closed’ group; nor did he appreciate the serious consequences such a post could trigger,” said the lawyer.
