Flight Attendant Charged For Bomb Threat to Stop Her Ex’s Vacation

“Tell the little captain that we put three bombs on the Miami flight,” a distorted voice said in an audio message sent to an airline worker in Argentina on May 21. “Check the airplane because it's going to blow up in a thousand pieces.”

270 passengers along with the crew were rushed off the Aerolíneas Argentinas airplane just minutes before the flight was set to take off from Buenos Aires’ Ezeiza International Airport. Bomb squads and emergency response teams hunted for the explosives, causing the airline to lose an estimated one million dollars.

But the threatening message turned out to be a hoax, according to Argentine authorities, called in by a jealous flight attendant who worked for the airline and wanted to stop her ex-boyfriend from flying to Miami with his new girlfriend.

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.

“The selfish one is you. That you can screw up my life over this bullshit,” the daughter wrote.

The final messages between the mother and daughter came just after Carbone was arrested: “Daughter, they arrested me….not one word to anyone,” the flight attendant wrote.

Carbone worked for Aerolíneas Argentinas for 24 years, 14 of which she also worked as an instructor. The airline announced that Carbone was fired on Monday, the day before she was officially charged by authorities, according to La Nacion.

“The company has more than corroborated her direct/indirect participation (involving her daughter in it) in the aforementioned bomb threat, which caused severe economic and reputational damage to the company, in addition to the bad moment that it caused passengers and the flight crew present to experience.”

Carbone could face up to six years in prison if found guilty.