A disgruntled former JetBlue Airways employee was arrested Wednesday after making fake bomb threat calls and leaving a cellphone with a note reading “explosive” inside the TWA Hotel at John F. Kennedy International Airport, police sources said.
According to sources, Dillon D. Vista, who was laid off by the airline amid the COVID-19 pandemic, allegedly left his cell phone in the lobby of the iconic hotel.
Shortly after, Vista, 32, called the JFK desk at the Port Authority Police Department from an airport parking lot at about 11 a.m. to report a cell phone bomb had been placed inside the hotel, where room rates ranged from $559 to $1,052 a night. According to the company’s website:.
A bomb disposal squad was rushed to the scene and the threat turned out to be fake, sources said.
Police arrested Vista at Jamaica Station after reviewing surveillance camera footage that showed him near the hotel and then fleeing on the AirTrain.
His arrest came several years after he was fired from the airline, sources said.
“Send this blank email to get your job back!” he wrote, bizarrely posting to Instagram an email he wrote to JetBlue Airways CEO Joanna Geraghty last year.
He wrote in the subject line, “Bring Dillon Back!”
According to sources, after his firing, Vista continued to come into the office multiple times and harass employees, leading the airline to obtain a restraining order against him.
A January 2023 Instagram post shows the embattled former company employee smiling in front of the airline’s Long Island City headquarters.
“Happy Birthday @jetblue!” he wrote under the photo.
Sources say his last known address was a homeless shelter in Brooklyn.
JetBlue did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
