A Chicago woman desperate to get home so her son could go to school made a bogus bomb threat at a Florida airport after the family missed their flight, relatives and authorities said.
Marina Verbitsky, 46, was arrested at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport late Monday after she told three airport employees she had a bomb in her checked luggage, which was already on the plane, according to the Broward County Sheriff’s Office.
Verbitsky, who was with her husband and son, flew into a rage when the JetBlue employees told the trio they had missed boarding, prosecutors said in court documents cited by the Chicago Sun-Times.
The aircraft had already started taxiing on a runway, but passengers were evacuated due to the threat before a thorough search turned up no explosives, deputies said.
The family’s luggage had been previously loaded onto the flight, a sheriff’s office spokeswoman told The Post on Wednesday.
Verbitsky’s family told the Sun-Times she was worried that her son would miss school when she made the unfounded threat.
“It was a mistake,” an unnamed relative told the newspaper Wednesday. “She was nervous about the son needing to go to school. It was a mess, but it was definitely not meant to be.”
Verbitsky was charged with false reporting of a bomb, explosive or weapon of mass destruction.
The JetBlue flight, which was on the runway at about 8:45 p.m., was ultimately delayed until 2 a.m. Tuesday, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported. Verbitsky’s husband and son were not taken into custody, deputies told the newspaper.
A judge set bail for Verbitsky, who hails from Chicago’s Lincoln Park section, at $10,000 and ordered her to undergo a mental health evaluation, the Sun-Times reported.
Verbitsky was released from custody after posting bond Tuesday. She has relatives who live in Sunny Isles Beach, near the airport in Broward County, records cited by the newspaper show.
A message seeking comment from JetBlue reps was not immediately returned Wednesday afternoon.