Sadly, American civil aviation has many such incidents. One guy dropped his ipod in the toilet and when he told the flight attendant, they escalated it up to a similar situation of a remote holding area, passengers delayed, guy handcuffed and interrorgated, huge disruption and delay, bad feelings all round, police complaining that he'd put his best men at risk over the guy's foolish actions etc. etcc.
Probably still on the internet somewhere.
Misunderstandings and drama over something simple. The thing is, they all have a procedures manual somewhere that says what to do when a terrorist incident occurs and once the button is pressed for whatever reason, everybody goes through their procedures, assumes the worst, because they don't want to be blamed for setting off World War Three or something, and the plans of the airline, the needs of the passengers, the missed connections, the cargo don't amount to anything worth considering.
I understand the need to take precautions against a credible threat, but with multiple organisations full of armed men and no intelligence rushing around trying to display their big nuts and manly manliness and not get hurt or embarrassed in any way, anything could happen.
