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An Air Force reservist working for a defense contractor in Africa was charged Wednesday with making bomb threats on a flight to the U.S. that prompted four air marshals to barricade his boots and laptop in the rear of the jetliner for fear any explosives might go off in midair.

Derek Michael Stansberry, who served two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan as an Air Force intelligence specialist, allegedly said that he had packed dynamite in his boots and other explosives in his laptop, and that he had a “pressure switch” to detonate the devices.

The plane, Delta Flight 273 from Paris to Atlanta, carrying 235 passengers and a crew of 13, was diverted to Bangor, Maine, on Tuesday. Stansberry was arrested and charged with interfering with a flight crew and making false bomb threats on an aircraft.

FBI Special Agent James R. McCarty said in an affidavit that Stansberry, 26, of Riverview, Fla., had passed a somewhat incoherent note to a flight attendant:

“I am not an American citizen. I was in Ouaga illegally. My passports and identity are fake. I bought that bag on eBay and have no association with the United States. I will take whatever COA the US wants. I will leave my wallet & passport on this aircraft.”

It was unclear what Stansberry meant by the acronyms.

Stansberry made rambling statements about holding “high level government clearances” for secret material, and said the bombs were to “divert attention from the fact that he had classified information,” McCarty said.

The crew alerted four air marshals on the plane. At that point, McCarty said, Stansberry was moved to the rear of the aircraft, along with his boots, backpack and laptop. Blankets and pillows were braced around the items to serve as a makeshift “bunker … to dampen the effects of any potential explosion.”

Authorities said it turned out there were no explosives in the laptop, although a minute trace of some chemical was “‘preliminarily” found on the boots. They theorized it may have come from his work in Africa.

His father, Richard Stansberry of Apollo Beach, Fla., could not explain his son’s alleged behavior. “Something did happen. But what caused it to happen, I have no clue,” the father said in an interview.

He denied that his son was stressed from his Air Force service from 2005 to 2009, when he conducted mission briefings for flight operations over Iraq and Afghanistan. “He was kind of like a big brother in the sky” to pilots, the father said.

He speculated that his son might have been affected by taking an Ambien sedative for the long flight. The son told authorities he took one Ambien, then said he took eight, then said he also used Valium.

Agent McCarty said the younger Stansberry “was responsive to questions, but he spoke in military jargon and had trouble keeping the events in a chronological order.”

Derek Stansberry told the FBI that fellow passengers were talking about him, ridiculing him and using interrogation techniques on him, and suggested that he concocted the dynamite story to divert attention from the fact he held “classified information,” according to an affidavit.

Passengers reported that seat cushions, pillows and blankets were taken to the back of the plane, where federal air marshals erected a bunker of sorts around the boots and laptop “to dampen the effects of any potential explosion,” FBI Special Agent James McCarty wrote in the affidavit.

Stansberry, 26, of Riverview, Fla., is charged with false information and threats, and interfering with a flight crew. He was ordered detained pending a detention hearing Monday.

His federal public defender, Virginia Villa, said she would seek a competency hearing but had not yet had time to fully review the case.

The Air Force described him as a former intelligence specialist who served four years, ending his Air Force career as a senior airman in 2009 at Hurlburt Field, Fla.

He told an FBI agent after the plane landed that there were no explosives and said he made the claim to deflect attention from the classified information he held, McCarty wrote. He also told an FBI agent that he had taken the sleep aid Ambien and told an air marshal that he’d taken eight of the pills, McCarty wrote.

Stansberry’s father, Richard, described his son Tuesday as “squeaky clean” and said the episode made no sense. He couldn’t be reached for comment Wednesday.

Delta Air Lines Flight 273 was the first of two flight diversions in a 24-hour span. On Wednesday, a Continental Express flight from Houston to the Washington area was diverted to North Carolina after a threatening message was written on a bathroom mirror, the Transportation Security Administration said.

On Tuesday afternoon, there were 235 passengers and 13 crew members on the Paris-to-Atlanta flight when it was forced to land at Bangor International Airport.

Among the passengers who had to spend the night in Bangor were Charde Houston, an all-star for the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx, and J. Alexander, featured on the TV show “America’s Next Top Model.” The weary travelers were finally allowed to depart Wednesday afternoon.

Stansberry came to the attention of the flight crew when he handed a rambling note to a flight attendant that said that his passport and identification papers were fake. He made the claim of having dynamite after being moved to the back of the plane for questioning by a federal air marshal.

Delta Air Lines Flight 273 from Paris to Atlanta was diverted to Maine because the passenger said he had a fake passport and explosives aboard the plane, U.S. officials said. The passport was real, law enforcement officials said, but there were no explosives on the Airbus A330.

The officials spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing.

Richard Stansberry was perplexed after government officials told him that his son, Derek Stansberry, 26, of Riverview, Fla., had been detained Tuesday at Bangor International Airport.

“My son’s profession in the military required he live a squeaky clean life,” Richard Stansberry said.

In Washington, Air Force spokeswoman Lt. Col. Linda Pepin said the man detained on Flight 273 was a senior airman and worked as an intelligence specialist. She said he was on active duty from June 2005 to 2009 and was last stationed at Hurlburt Field, Fla.

Charde Houston, an all-star forward for the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx, was on the flight. She said she saw no clues on the handcuffed man’s face as he was led off the plane on Tuesday.

“He looked extremely calm, like a blank face. No emotion,” Houston said.