...as if he were Davy Crockett or something. I believe Kou Wei Chiu is one of those brilliant immigrant doctors you hear about. No one's saying, though. What they're saying is that he's Tennessee man, a Bellevue man, that he's fluent in Chinese and Spanish, and has been practicing in a "Spanish-speaking practice," in a Tennessee community that has somehow acquired enough monoglot Spanish-speaking residents to need a "Spanish-speaking practice."

Last updated July 26, 2007 11:24 p.m. PT

Physician charged with airline bomb threat at Sea-Tac Tennessean called 911 after missing flight, FBI says P-I STAFF AND NEWS SERVICES

A 31-year-old physician from Tennessee who allegedly admitted to calling 911 three times to make a fake bomb warning at Sea-Tac Airport was charged by federal prosecutors Thursday with making a false threat against an aircraft.

Kou Wei Chiu of Bellevue, Tenn., a Nashville suburb, is accused of making the bomb threat because he missed his Northwest Airlines flight, forcing the plane to turn around in flight and return to Sea-Tac.

Chiu made an initial appearance Thursday afternoon in federal court in Seattle. A detention hearing was set for Friday.

According to an FBI affidavit filed in support of the complaint, Chiu admitted that he used an airport pay phone to call 911 three times after he arrived at gate S-7 too late to board his flight Wednesday. "Flight 980 Memphis. There may be a bomb on board," Chiu was quoted as telling the emergency operator.