Beijing court jails plane bomb hoaxer

BEIJING - A Beijing court on Wednesday announced a sentence of three years and two months in jail for a woman whose bomb hoax late last year forced a plane to make an emergency landing.

The 28-year-old woman, surnamed Wang, was found guilty of fabricating a terrorist threat and forging an identity card, said the Fengtai District Court.

On October 13, 2011, Wang was on board a domestic airliner from Beijing to Urumqi, capital of Northwest China's Xinjiang autonomous region. She wrote the words "TNT in plane to blast" on a brochure and handed it round her neighboring passengers.

The plane made an emergency landing as Wang threatened to detonate the bomb and tried to commit suicide while the crew members struggled with her.

Police found no dangerous items on board after inspecting the plane.

The incident caused direct economic losses of over 220,000 yuan ($35,33).

Wang received a lesser punishment as the judicial authentication institution in Beijing diagnosed her with hysteria and therefore limited criminal responsibility.