Breeze Airways Flight 717 left Orlando at 4:28 p.m. on Tuesday & landed in Jacksonville at 5:50 p.m., as the FBI called it a “security issue.” Here’s what happened.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — New details emerge in the case of an Orlando flight that was diverted to Jacksonville while on the way to Rhode Island Tuesday night, as one person on the flight was arrested after the plane landed.
Breeze Airways Flight 717 left Orlando at 4:28 p.m. on Tuesday and landed in Jacksonville at 5:50 p.m. The FBI responded to a “security issue” and searched the plane with a K9.
Evan Sims, 41, was arrested when the plane landed on a warrant for violation of an injunction his fiancée filed on him that he had in Rhode Island. However, the reason for the plane being diverted was not because he had the warrant, but instead was because another passenger(s) on the plane allegedly heard him say “bomb” to his fiancée who was on the flight with him.
When Sims made his first court appearance in front of a Duval County judge Thursday morning, the judge told him, “y’all know you made a plane turn around and there’s about 200 passengers that hate your guts.”
“Yes sir, I did apologize,” Sims replied back to the judge while shrugging his shoulders.
Sims then told the judge that he said “calm” while on the plane because there was an argument between him and his fiancée in which she wanted more space on the plane. Sims also told the judge that on Wednesday, he spoke with federal agents for about an hour as well as an air marshal, and according to Duval County Jail records, he was only charged for the injunction he violated.
“We say space down here, y’all say calm up there in the Ocean State?” the judge asked Sims.
“Yes sir,” Sims answered back.
A moment was then shared as the judge chuckled and Sims cracked a smile, comically expressing the difference between two lingos.
Afterward, Sims told the judge he has been previously arrested prior to the flight incident, but not in Duval County, as the judge asked him back: “No contest?”
Sims replied, “No contest sir… up north, we’d say nolo contendere.”
“Hey, hey, look at you, you speak Latin,” the judge poked fun back. “You say it a lot better than I do,” the judge added while Sims laughed.
In the end of the appearance and funny interaction, the judge adjudicated Sims guilty and sentenced him to two days in jail with credit for time served. Additionally, the judge ordered Sims to pay $655 for court fees because he made the plane turn around. The judge then told Sims after he does that, the “matter would be over with.”
The funny interaction also may have granted Sims more grace from the judge as the judge gave him an extension on when the $655 in court fees were due when Sims asked; the deadline to make the payment was pushed to the end of March 2024 from February 2024.
As for the other passengers on Flight 717, the flight resumed Wednesday around noon and landed in Providence, R.I., around 3 p.m.
