TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A Lion Air passenger identified as Ramli Marbun (62) was detained by Soekarno Hatta Airport’s security personnel after he reportedly made a bomb-related joke upon boarding his flight. Based on official report, Ramli is a state employee.

Ramli confirmed this report when Tempo reached him on Tuesday, where he admits to be an employee of the Transportation Ministry’s directorate general of sea transportation.

“I know Djoko Sasono who is currently the secretary general,” said Ramli on Tuesday, August 14. But was later denounced by Djoko Sasono himself when we reached him for confirmation.

The incident took place at 08:05 Western Indonesia Time (WIB) when Ramli was on his way to fly to the airport in the Riau Islands on a Lion Air JT 620. Upon boarding, Ramli refused to place his items in the cabin and said that he had ‘brought a bomb’ which was then followed by airport security personnel escorting Ramli to be further investigated.

Soekarno Hatta Airport Manager of Branch Communication Haerul Anwar confirmed the incident. “We had to act assertively to avoid similar events happening again,” he said yesterday.

However, the investigation had seemingly been cut short for the fact that when we reached Ramli at 19:00 WIB he had arrived at Batam and had flown on another airline, Citilink. “I think the airport securities were too uptight, I was just joking. This happened because of the lack of my knowledge,” said Ramli.

FAJAR PEBRIANTO