Girl Used Threat To Delay Flight In LGA Love Triangle

Anna Tarasov -- also known as Erin Barasov -- may soon be traveling to someplace that was not on her agenda. Like prison.

The 19-year-old Atlanta girl was in New York on November 4, 2005, trying to get to one boyfriend in Georgia and prevent him from traveling to Minnesota to confront another, according to an exclusive report in the New York Post.

Late for her flight's departure from LaGuardia, she came up with what she thought was an ingenious solution -- she called AirTran's reservation center and said there were two pax with a bomb on Flight 1775. She did it at the exact minute the flight rolled onto the runway at LGA for take-off.

"I remember thinking it wouldn't be such a big deal," Tarasov told the Post's Kate Sheehy. "It totally slipped my mind about the terrorists. Then it hit me. 'Of all the places. This is New York.' It was very stupid."

Reporter Sheehy didn't disagree; she called Tarasov a "dimwitted teen," "flighty," and "airheaded," in the course of the story, but she let Tarasov say "stupid" herself. (Nobody has mentioned "galactically self-centered" yet, so let that be our contribution).

Of course, when someone calls in a bomb threat, authorities have no way of knowing whether she was simply a knucklehead... or a knucklehead working for real terrorists, so they have to act.

Informed of the threat, the crew taxied the plane back, to be met by security officials and police who rescreened the passengers. After bomb-sniffing dogs checked the plane, the flight reboarded and left.

Still without Tarasov, who was still late. So much for her master plan. "All I can say is it was a dumb mistake. I wasn't thinking straight at the moment," she admits. The authorities have a dimmer view (not dim in quite the same sense, though). They have had a warrant prepared for Tarasov's arrest; it was child's play for the FBI to trace the phone call to her cell phone.

Tarasov -- embarrassed by, if not any wiser for, the experience -- seems blithely unconcerned about the consequences. She has contacted authorities and hopes to "work it all out in Atlanta," which has the benefit of keeping her off of any more planes.

Oh, and the boyfriends? She isn't seeing either one. All you guys who tell us your dream girl is not too bright and likes to fly, she's available.

FMI: www.airtran.com www.fbi.gov