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 Wednesday afternoon, 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, explaining that allegedly 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.
At the end of Wednesday's court appearance, 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 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.
The judge then told Sims after he does that, the "matter would be over with."
However, according to a Department of Justice (DOJ) release shared with First Coast News Thursday, Sims has been federally charged with "false information and threats regarding the possession of an explosive on an airplane."
The release says that on Tuesday, Sims began arguing with his fiancée while seated on the plane prior to takeoff.
Sims told his fiancée that he had never heard of the airline for the flight and that he hoped the plane would not “go down,” according to the release. The release says that Sims also stated that they would be “gone with the wind.”
"During boarding and the airliner safety briefing, Sims made comments to his travel companion about needing to use the emergency doors and that the windows looked like they had not been used," the release states. "Sims also told his travel companion that he hoped they did not have to use the windows. Further, Sims questioned the flight crew regarding the emergency life raft that was in the overhead storage compartment. Sims’s travel companion and the surrounding passengers were uncomfortable with Sims’s statements and Sims’s travel companion asked Sims to stop making his comments."
As the flight began the initial ascent into the air, the DOJ says Sims partially stood up in his seat and said that he wanted to get off the plane. While the flight was airborne, the release further mentions that Sims stated approximately two times that his fiancée had a bomb on the plane.
Thereafter, the DOJ says "due to Sims’s repeated disturbances and escalating behavior," the flight was diverted to the Jacksonville International Airport. Bomb-detection dogs searched the plane but did not locate a bomb, according to the release.
Sims appeared in federal court Thursday with his hands shackled. A judge said if he's convicted in this case, Sims will face a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison and a fine up to $250K.
Sims told the judge he has ADHD and was treated for a mental illness as a child; He says he is not taking medication. Sims lives in Rhode Island but is being held in temporary detention in Jacksonville until his next hearing, next Tuesday, Dec. 12.
As for the other passengers on Flight 717, the flight resumed Wednesday around noon and landed in Providence, R.I., around 3 p.m.
In this year alone, statistics show the FAA has received more than 1,931 reports of unruly passengers nationwide.