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A business consultant is accused of "falsely claiming there was a bomb in her suitcase" after she was unable to get onto her JetBlue flight at JFK Airport last week.
According to the complaint filed in Brooklyn Supreme Court, Rosalinda Baez was trying to argue her way onto the plane after the jetway closed. Baez allegedly told a flight attendant, "What if I had a bomb in my bag? Well, I have a bomb in my bag, so are you guys going to turn the plane around cuz I need my bag."
The plane, headed to Austin, TX, was diverted to Richmond, VA, where the passengers were, per the Daily News, "yanked off the aircraft and screened, while bomb-sniffing dogs checked the commercial jet." Baez, who was waiting for another flight at an airport lounge, was arrested and later released on $200,000 bond.
According to Baez, she said, "Isn't it a security risk to let my bag travel without the passenger when there could be a bomb in the bag?" She told the News, "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." (The complaint also alleges Baez said of the Transportation Security Administration, the TSA "does not know how to do their f------ job because if it did TSA would not catch it and let it go through").
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Stupid woman.
But ooo la la. Mizz Baez can consult me any day.
Money can't buy brains, I guess.
I agree that some in TSA are not the brightest bulbs, but this dim bulb yelling that she has a bomb in her luggage, just does not get it. TSA and DHS are a disgrace, but you don't taunt them. I would have let the dumbass sit in a jail cell for a few days to think about what a dumbass move she made. Oh, the gene pool is getting dirtier and dirtier.
She's right- Look up those TSA positions, all you need is a high school diploma. They are people who cannot think for themselves.
"We have left the security of our country in the hands of people who are unqualified."
She has a point to be honest.
@grooverider
agreed. And we've elected many of them. :(
...
Amazing. She should have just got another flight and been done with it...
While it's true that Luggage is supposed to be accompanied by the Passenger (Gee, I feel secure with the TSA, don't you???): You NEVER mention the word "bomb" to the TSA...
The reality is, she exposed this "Security" for the sham it is and she's going to pay for it. Bet she end's up on the "No Fly" list...
According to Baez, she said, "Isn't it a security risk to let my bag travel without the passenger when there could be a bomb in the bag?"
i believe her, but she'll still get screwed by the system, which is sad, because it should be me, not the system, doing it.
I wonder is there any evidence of the TSA ever preventing a terrorist attack? And please no, "well there hasn't been any since so they're doing a great job."
Maybe the bombers are an impatient crowd who can't deal with the lines.
I could have sworn that if someone didn't board a plane, they removed the luggage.
While true that TSA isn't exactly doing the best job on airline security (they can learn some lessons from El Al), the point is not that they treated her in some unfair way but her obvious sense of entitlement. Anyone who flies more than once a year knows the drill - what to pack, what to say, what to do, etc. How in heaven's name could her bags have already gotten on the plane but she was so late to the gate that they had closed the jetway??? If she could check her baggage, she had plenty of time to get to the gate on time. The only explanation is that she felt entitled to take all the time that she wanted and saunter up to the gate at the last minute and expect to be boarded. And then she reacts by getting angry at the attendants (not even TSA) for not re-opening the jetway just for her. Air travel sucks, but creatures like this make it even worse for all of us.
TimSPC, they sure used to...
Wow, you people are sheep. Just because the TSA has power we're supposed to roll over?
If she said she had a bomb, she deserves what she got. If she said "Your security sucks if you let bags fly without the associated passenger, what if there was a bomb in it?" she's saying something perfectly reasonable and pointing out a flaw in TSA "security."
"We have left the security of our country in the hands of people who are unqualified."
I think a more accurate statement is that we have created a system, staffed by the unqualified, which only provides an illusion of safety.
How many buildings in NYC are "guarded" by people who are probably unqualified to make me a coffee at Starbucks. They stand at their post, hassle me for an ID, try to flirt with whatever women have to get by, and don't make us ANY safer.
Seriously, god forbid, but if anyone ever attempted to do harm at one of our commercial buildings, those security folks would prove useless.
Her cavity search would have been the new Philipino rectal bodyspray video...
While I'm not sure we can say exactly what happened w/ Ms. Baez's check-in and luggage, fortyver (#3) and snessnyc (#11) have some good points.
Irregardless of TSA's quality of service (and I'm not a fan of how they currently run things), Baez's little stunt caused one plane full of passengers to be diverted to Richmond, extending their time in a cramped space for numerous hours, while other travelers (including myself, while I was on my way back to NY from a visit to Austin) had to sit in an airport for seven hours as the flight kept getting delayed. It's amazing how one person's selfishness can affect so many others.
Turn the plane around, because I need MY bag!
What an idiot/self-centered person.
once the bag departs an is unclaimed there is a 99.999 % chance that it will be stolen by equally unqualified and theiving baggage handlers and the destination airport,
i wish i had my own private jet, id take her anywhere as long as she pays the "fare"
Zodak, I spit coffee at my monitor. Very funny.
Tips to ensure the TSA doesn't swipe your stuff
Passengers come forth with tales of airport theft;
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24187702/
When screeners inspected his wife’s carry-on bag at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport recently, he claims her designer eyeglasses were swiped.
Since it was created in 2001, the agency has fired about 200 employees accused of stealing.
It doesn’t help that hardly a week goes by without another story about alleged TSA pilferage making headlines. Here’s one from a Miami TV station, where 1,500 items have been reported stolen at the airport since 2003. Here’s someone who had his engagement ring filched by screeners in Los Angeles. Here’s another one involving a 12-year-old’s heartbreaking loss of $265 in birthday money.
TSA’s rules have a big loophole that shifts liability for stolen baggage claims to the airline when luggage is delayed, he told me. In other words, there’s little incentive for the stealing to stop.
David Cumpston had a $50 bottle of cologne stolen from his bag in San Francisco. They lifted a box of Montecristo cigars out of P.J. Zornosa’s bag in Florida. “Hope someone enjoyed them,” he grumbles. And Jeanne Rose lost one shoe — a brand-new Merrick clog — in Atlanta. Why just one shoe? Who knows? Point is, you can’t predict where a TSA thief might strike next.
This is stupidity of the highest order. So big deal she allegedly said she had a bomb on the plane. Why would anyone with half a brain believe her? Real bombers don't tell you to bring their bags back if the plane has already left. They walk away and let the plane blow up. This whole "zero tolerance" thing they've applied to everything from airline security to blunt kitchen knives being confiscated as "weapons" in elementary school cafeterias is just plain absurd. Maybe she shouldn't have said what she said, but it was the imbeciles at TSA that diverted the plane. "Unqualified" barely begins to describe those people.
she should be charged with terrorism. i know so vague!
@ihateallbrokers: a old boyfriend of mine had a wrapped christmas gift from his mom for me in his checked baggage on route to JFK.
"Baez's little stunt caused one plane full of passengers to be diverted to Richmond, "
No, the TSA did that.
I don't think what she said... if she was misquoted was really that far fetched. I've heard from numerous sources before that a plane will generally not leave if a passenger's luggage is on but the passenger isn't. If her luggage was on the plane and she wasn't, its not unreasonable to ask if the policy to prevent people from putting bombs on planes actually existed.
But then again, the b-word is supposed to be off limits at an airport... even though I don't think a terrorist would necessarily announce their bomb.
Undercover agents are always trying to smuggle bomb and handgun components on planes; it's the only way to reliably test how well the TSA is doing its job. TSA screeners missed them 60% of the time at O'Hare, 75% of the time at LAX, and 90% of the time at Newark.
"Why would I say [there was a bomb]? It makes no sense."
Um, that's not a denial. Looks like that's exactly what she said, else why wouldn't she simply deny it?
Agree with Spiritof76.
It takes a special group of morons to divert a flight and create this kind of mess instead of actually assessing if this woman was a real threat or just a self-entitled princess acting like a brat.
If these folks can't tell the difference between an annoying woman and a terrorist, it just shows how incompetent they are.
Only a fool believes that the silly things we are forced to do-- removing shoes, confiscation of nail files and shaving cream, etc., is making us safer -- especially when we know that testers regularly smuggle stuff on board all the time.
As someone who was ON THE PLANE, I can't tell you how much her antics really screwed up my day. We were herded off, not told what was happening, and spent FOUR HOURS in the customs area without any of our stuff. We finally got bits of information here and there after being handed an official statement document to fill out by the Richmond Police.
My flight arrived 5 hours later than it should have, all because every single bag had to be taken off and screened.
I just wish that they had given us her bag and let us take turns with it...
AND, as someone who flies domestically frequently, in the post 9/11 world I've had my bag go on to a destination while I was not able to board a plane. So, it unfortunately happens.
Of course, glad there was no bomb... but I sincerely hope this is something Ms. Baez will never forget.
Bush has made us safer, we are fighting the terrorists over there so we don't have to fight them here.
So why do I have to take off my fuckin' shoes when I get on a plane??
The rest of the world is laughing at us big time.
Despite the fact that the media has taken the extravagant (and, honestly, expected) step toward absolute sensationalism and gone ahead and LIED about this story, I would have hoped that those of us who travel frequently might see the validity of my question. NEVER have I known ANY airline to allow a bag to travel sans passenger. Indeed, it is LAW in the EU, UK, Japan and several Latin American countries to remove checked baggage of a customer who does not board a flight. This is a safety measure, and quite honestly, despite the many hours lost in my life sitting on a plane waiting for this to take place, I am HAPPY that this law exists......elsewhere, it seems.
A few facts:
1. I arrived at JFK at 6:25AM for an 8:05 flight. I sat down in the wi-fi area to catch up on work until 7:30, at which time I got up to go to my gate....but low and behold, I had to take a BUS to my gate...so I arrived at 7:46AM. My bag was checked in already and my question was as follows:
'ISN'T IT A SECURITY RISK TO ALLOW A BAG TO TRAVEL WITHOUT THE PASSENGER? WHAT IF THERE WAS A BOMB IN THE BAG?"
2. I am not 44. If I still look like this when I AM 44, I will leave this industry and do what the talentless JLo's and Sarah Jessica Parkers do with their lives: sit back and collect on fascination.
2. I NEVER said I worked for Dell. I am VERY proud to be in Interactive ; I was asked repeatedly why I was travelling to Texas. (Evidently brown people are suspect for travelling TO Texas from New York...)
3. The Daily News reported this story DESPITE objections from my lawyer. In other words.....more to come.