French co-pilot escapes US bomb joke charges

NEW YORK, Feb 10 (AFP) – US authorities suspended Tuesday criminal charges against an Air France co-pilot who joked about having a bomb in his shoes at New York’s Kennedy Airport last year, according to prosecutors.

The charges will be dropped in six months if co-pilot Philippe Riviere is not involved in another incident.

“(The) subsequent investigation determined that the defendant’s conduct and statement, while inappropriate, didn’t rise to the level of a crime,” said a spokeswoman for Richard Brown, prosecutor of New York’s Queens borough.

On August 8, Riviere, a co-pilot on Paris-bound flight AF009, joked to security agents that he had a bomb in his shoes, causing the flight to be cancelled.

Police questioned Riviere, who was charged with lying and accused with refusing to go through a metal detector and remove his shoes.He had faced up to 11 years in jail.

© AFP

                                                              Subject: France news