Doll Box Sparks Terror Scare on Israel-Bound Flight — Hebrew Word Looks Like ‘Bomb’
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Brief panic over a label on a toy box caused a short delay on a flight from Cyprus to Israel on Tuesday when an aircraft cleaner thought it was a warning of a bomb.
The Aegean Airlines flight bound for Tel Aviv via Larnaca, was searched by police at the Cypriot airport on Tuesday after a cleaner found a label with the word “Booba” on it in the Latin alphabet.
“Booba,” which means doll in Hebrew, looks alarmingly like “bomba,” or ‘bomb’ in Greek.
“Cyprus’s civil aviation authority checked it and there was no problem. There was a small delay, but the alarm was lifted immediately,” an Aegean Airlines spokeswoman said in Athens.
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