Soon after a flight attendant's five-year romance with another flight attendant went south, her ex-boyfriend booked a trip from Buenos Aires to Miami for another woman. He was working on the same flight, and the two would spend some time in Florida together. But they didn't get very far, after his jealous ex got wind of of the rendez-vous and called in a bomb threat to stop it.
"Tell the little captain that we put three bombs on the Miami flight," she said with a distorted voice. "Check the airplane because it's going to blow up in a thousand pieces." (Listen to audio message in Spanish, here.)
The revenge hoax led Aerolíneas Argentinas to evacuate the crew and 270 passengers off the plane just before takeoff, according to Vice. It also cost the airline about one million dollars to search for the bombs that never were.
To make matters worse, she used her daughter's phone to make the call, and her daughter was none too pleased about it.
"The selfish one is you," the daughter said in one of many text messages between the two, reported La Nacion. "That you can screw up my life over this bullshit."
From Vice:
Daniela Carbone, 47, was charged on Tuesday in a Buenos Aires court with aggravated duress, public intimidation and obstruction of public service.
Carbone was arrested a week after the bomb threat on May 28 when she returned to Argentina on a Aerolíneas Argentinas flight. She was held in the airport prison for over two weeks while refusing to make a statement to authorities, before she was officially charged on June 13.
Carbone was reportedly in a five year relationship with a male flight attendant, and the pair often worked together on Aerolínas Argentinas, according to local media. The pair broke up just a couple months prior to the bomb threat and he began a new relationship. Carbone's ex-boyfriend reportedly was working on the flight, while his new girlfriend was traveling as a passenger, and the pair intended to spend a few days in Miami together.
Authorities reportedly found evidence that Carbone had used her daughter's phone to send the bomb threat to the airplane. Argentine newspaper La Nacion published a series of messages between Carbone and her daughter reportedly sent after the bomb threat. The daughter expressed shock and anger towards her mother when she discovered that her mom used her phone to commit the crime.
Carbone worked for Aerolíneas Argentinas for 24 years, 14 of which she also worked as an instructor.
The airline fired Carbone on Monday, and if found guilty, she faces up to six years in prison.
