“My name is bin Laden, and I have a bomb in my bag.”
A Yonkers man with a thin build and gray beard uttered those ominous words to an Air France ticket agent at JFK Airport on Friday night – but it took dawdling security screeners 40 minutes before they finally called cops, furious law enforcement sources told The Post on Tuesday.
By then, the luggage belonging to boozed-up suspect Christian Boncorps, 61, was already aboard a Paris-bound jet that he had planned to get on, the sources said.
The incident began around 10:20 p.m. when Boncorps showed up drunk at the Air France ticket counter to get his boarding pass, sources said.
An Air France reservation clerk asked Boncorps what he had in his bag, thinking he might be tyring to smuggle more booze aboard, one source said.
That’s when the irked Boncorps made his comment about the now-dead terror chief Osama bin, Laden, the source said.
But instead of calling Port Authority cops immediately, the clerk escorted Boncorps to a TSA screening site, where workers then simply put Boncorps through standard pre-flight screening procedures.
“When a cop finally shows up [Boncorps] was putting his shoes back on,” said a PAPD source.
An Air France rep did not reply to an e-mail about what occurred.
Ann Davis, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration, said the incident was being reviewed.
“TSA continues to look into the circumstances surrounding this matter,” she said. “However, travelers can be assured that every TSA and airport employee is trained to take any and all threats seriously and notify law enforement to ensure the safety of the airport and air travelers.”
But Paul Nunziato, president of the Port Authority Police Benevolent Association, was furious.
“We got lucky that this passenger wasn’t a serious threat,” he said.
“Countless lives were placed in jeopardy by the TSA”s failure to follow its own security protocols. If the statements made by the passenger warranted calling the police, then that call must be made immediately and before the passenger entered the screening point.”
Nunziato also assailed PAPD supervisors for failing contacting the FBI-NYPD Joint Terrorism Task Force about what had occurred.
“Simply put, the public expects and deserves more,” he said. “These policies were created to ensure safe travel for all passengers. Security policies cannot be selectively applied.”
Boncorps, who could not be reached for comment, was charged with filing a false report.
He wound up pleading guilty to disorderly conduct at his arraignment before Queens Criminal Court Judge Ira Margulis, a violation for which he paid a $250 fine.