John Stea allegedly told a flight attendant that the passenger next to him had explosives on a Hawaiian Airlines flight departing San Diego on Tuesday.

A San Diego-based Navy sailor was cited and released Tuesday after allegedly making a false bomb threat aboard a Hawaiian Airlines flight bound for Honolulu.

The Airbus A330 bound for Honolulu had just pushed back from the gate around 8:45 a.m. Tuesday when “a flight attendant informed the flight’s captain that a passenger reported a possible bomb onboard,...