The Airplane Smallpox Hoax gets weird

Remember The Smallpox Hoax on the plane in Charlotte ? A drunk on a plane claimed to have smallpox, and shut the airport down.

Now you'd think the person who did this would be up for heavy jailtime. After all People have been shot dead on the mere suspicion of having a bomb. So surely a person who commited a hoax like this would be in some serious trouble.

All charges have been dropped and the investigation has been closed. The U.S. Attorney in Charlotte will not file charges for disruption of the flight, nor any terroristic threat charges.

Not suprising when you find out that the person who made this threat is Rear Adm. Brian Brannman of the U.S. Navy, who is the Director of the Navy Medical Service Corps.

Reason.Com (which is the source of the information in this diary) pointed out that exactly one station, WBTV has published his name, along with this fact

The concern was that Brannman could have very well had access to a serious disease while attending such an important convention.  

Sources said he wasn't drunk while on the plane, but that he was suffering from real mental problems. Officials told us that Brannman is now getting medical help.  

So the story is 'A mentally disturbed US Navy Officer was suspected of releasing some of the US's own Germ Warfare experiments into the wild'.

No wonder it vanished with nary a trace.