PHILADELPHIA (NBC) -- Federal agents say a love triangle may be at the center of a bizarre series of events that lead to a threat that grounded a plane briefly Thursday and ended with two men behind bars.
Chris Shell had little to say as he walked out of jail Friday afternoon, but plenty of people are talking about his wild ride over the last 24 hours.
It started Friday 30-minutes into a trip to Dallas, when his U.S. Airways flight returned to Philadelphia International Airport.
"Several FBI and ATF agents came in from the back of the plane to front of the plane and pointed guns at a particular passenger, and made him put his hands on the back of the seat," passenger Ira Klein said shortly after the incident.
That passenger was Shell, pulled from the plane after a phone call warned airport police he was trying to carry explosives onto the plane.
Police later said nothing dangerous was found on Shell.
Officers called it a "nasty trick" and a "hoax" carried out on Shell's 29th birthday.
Shell quickly pointed the finger at Kenneth Smith, the new boyfriend of his ex-girlfriend.
Federal agents arrested Smith Friday.
He apparently admitted to making the call from a pay phone as a response to compromising pictures Shell posted of his ex-girlfriend on Facebook.
It was Shell who found himself in a compromising position when he finally landed at DFA Airport late Thursday.
Officers were again waiting on the tarmac.
All the publicity had caught the attention of police in Texas, where Shell faced arrest warrants after missing court appearances on multiple drug charges.
On Friday afternoon he posted bond and walked out of jail with the same carry-on bag and clothes he was wearing on his initial flight.
Smith also posted bond late Friday.
If convicted he faces a maximum sentence of ten years in prison and a quarter-of-a-million-dollar fine.