Next time, try calling in sick

updated 4:05 p.m. ET Oct. 17, 2005

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - A SriLankan Airlines flight attendant called in a bomb threat because she wanted a day off, a newspaper reported Sunday.

Investigators traced the call and found that it was made from a mobile phone belonging to the woman's boyfriend, Colombo's Sunday Times weekly reported.

"The inquiry reveals that the stewardess had given the false alarm because she did not want to fly that day," it said.

The flight attendant was fired, it reported.

SriLankan Airlines spokeswoman Ruvini Jayasinghe declined to either confirm or deny the report and referred the call to senior officials, who were not immediately reachable.

In recent months, two bomb threats forced aircraft to return to the ground in Sri Lanka.

On Oct. 3, a London-bound SriLankan Airlines plane returned to Colombo's international airport after a telephone caller said there was a bomb on board. The aircraft landed safely, and no explosives were found.

On Sept. 8, one passenger was killed and 20 others were injured in a stampede to evacuate a Saudi Air plane at the same airport after a similar bomb threat.

SriLankan Airlines is 40 percent owned by Dubai-based Emirates Airlines and 60 percent by Sri Lanka's government.

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