A flight attendant trainee for Fort Worth-based American Airlines is off the job and on the Transportation Security Administration's "no-fly" list after pleading guilty to making several bomb threats to United Airlines.
Court records show Patrick Cau admitted to calling in eight bomb threats all targeting United Airlines flights while he'd been in training to be a flight attendant for competing American Airlines.
Cau took a plea deal admitting his guilt and confessed that he started making the hoax calls back in October. Records show he admitted to calling from a pay phone near his home in Los Angeles to an internal United crew scheduling number and claimed there was a bomb on board a flight from London to LA.
Over the next four months, Cau made seven more calls to 9-1-1 from all over the country with similar false bomb threats. Cau made these calls while working as an American Airlines flight attendant trainee.
American Airlines said Cau was removed from the training program in May after he was arrested for making the calls.
The bomb hoaxes landed Cau on the TSA's "no-fly" list and cost United an estimated $267,000 due to flight delays and cancellations. Investigators say the threats also wasted law enforcement time as passengers had to be evacuated from targeted planes and re-screened.
As part of the plea deal, Cau has to repay United Airlines and is facing up to five years in prison.