Posted on 04/22/2008 7:00:16 AM PDT by VRWCmember
A globe-hopping executive was grounded by JetBlue after she threw a hissy fit at Kennedy Airport and triggered a bomb scare aboard a flight, the Daily News has learned.
Rosalinda Baez was arrested by the FBI for falsely claiming there was a bomb in her suitcase at JFK, according to a complaint filed last week in Brooklyn Federal Court.
Baez, who earns $190,000-a-year and has homes in Manhattan and Texas, was returning from a business trip in Costa Rica last Tuesday when she was blocked by a gate attendant from boarding JetBlue Flight 1061 to Austin, Tex., because the jetway had closed.
Her suitcase was already aboard the aircraft.
"What if I had a bomb in my bag?" the 44-year-old told the gate attendant, according to the federal complaint. "Well, I have a bomb in my bag, so are you guys going to turn the plane around cuz I need my bag."
Baez then raged that the Transportation Security Administration "does not know how to do their f------ job because if it did TSA would not catch it and let it go through," authorities said.
The flight took off anyway, but was forced to make an emergency landing in Richmond, Va., according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Jack Dennehy.
Three hundred passengers were yanked off the aircraft and screened, while bomb-sniffing dogs checked the commercial jet, authorities said.
Meanwhile, Baez waited several hours in a Wi-Fi computer lounge at Kennedy for another flight - until she was approached by JetBlue officials and federal agents.
Baez, a Web consultant to Dell Computers, said an FBI agent questioned her about "my love of this country."
"I was asked, have I ever had any thoughts of suicide or thoughts of doing damage to the United States," she said.
Baez adamantly denies claiming there was a bomb in her bag.
"The question [to the gate attendant] that got me into trouble was, 'Isn't it a security risk to let my bag travel without the passenger when there could be a bomb in the bag?'" Baez said.
She was arrested and then banned from flying aboard JetBlue until the criminal case is resolved. She is free on $200,000 bond.
"I've never been in any trouble in my life," she said. "Why would I say [there was a bomb]? It makes no sense. We have left the security of our country in the hands of people who are unqualified."
Guilty or Not Guilty
One thing that causes me to question the version of the story as related by "authorities" is that if she had really made the comments claiming there was a bomb in her luggage as reported in the story would she really have been allowed to wait several hours in a Wi-Fi computer lounge at the airport for another flight?
Smells like JetBlue butt-covering to me.
Maybe she meant to say “There’s an Obama in my bag!”
“We have left the security of our country in the hands of people who are unqualified.”
Guilty or not...she does have a point.
I going to go for "Idiot".
You do not say the word "bomb" in an airport. Duh!
They might have had somebody watching her the whole time.
If her name was achmed, hadn’t taken a bath in 6 mos., and said something about “death to the us” she’d get an apology and have 100 lawyers ready to sue for her.
Cuz?
I empathise with her, big time. Without audio recordings, her story will be hard to argue. I wouldn’t believe a thing a TSA agent said under oath.
Plus, even if she said what they say she said, a reasonable human being would understand it the way all of us here did.
Bottom line though, PMS is a bitch.
Nor do you greet your friend Jack at the airport by saying, "Hi".
“Guilty or Not Guilty”
Neither, just plain stupid.
I thought that bags not matched to passengers on the flight were automatically removed?
Not ever.
Guilty of being stupid...
argue = argue with.
Her story is a good “plausible denial”. And if it IS what she said, it was a valid point.
How do you figure that?
Do you perhaps have examples of similar occurrences?
Sounds like the gate agent Did Not Know Who She Was.
What is the difference between a plain fit and a “hissy” fit. Are their other kinds of fits? How about “wussy” fit or “gassy” fit.
Idiot is right.
Guilty? Probably not.
High maintenance? Absolutely!
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