Hoax phone calls hit mainland flights (2)

A psychologist attributed the hoax calls to poor education.

"Suspects in such cases usually have lower educational backgrounds. They treat their behavior as a joke," said Li Meijin, a professor in criminal psychology at Chinese People’s Public Security University.

"Some of them are usually psychologically unsophisticated and know little about the consequences of making threats to airlines or airports."

The threats follow the detention of a man accused of making similar threats that led to the grounding of five flights on Wednesday.

The suspect, identified only as Wang, from the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, was taken into custody in a dawn raid on Thursday by police in Shenzhen.

Wang, 26, has confessed to making the threats by phone on Wednesday morning, which led to flight delays and emergency landings, police said.