JetBlue employee whose Jamaican vacation spawned COVID controversy now out of a job
A JetBlue Airways employee whose Jamaican vacation changed into a world controversy after she claimed she was being held hostage within the Caribbean nation is now not with the U.S.-based service.
Derek Dombrowski, a spokesperson with JetBlue Airways, stated Kalina Collier has been let go after an investigation.
“We continue to offer our apologies for the frustration and concern this incident has caused and reiterate our confidence in the health protocols Jamaica has put in place,” he stated.
The now-former stewardess traveled to Jamaica with two pals in January and was slated to return Feb. 1. But beneath new U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pointers, she first needed to take a COVID-19 check. An preliminary antigen check got here again constructive, adopted by a unfavourable consequence an hour later, Jamaican officers stated. On Feb. 2, she was given a gold-standard PCR check, which got here again constructive.
Per authorities pointers, she was despatched to quarantine for 14 days and supplied a room in her luxurious resort, Ocean Coral Spring Resort in Trelawny, free of cost.
But in a dwell Instagram video, Collier complained she’d been put far-off from the principle half of the resort. She griped that the room didn’t have photos on the partitions and that the water got here out brown.
“I’m in a room by myself. It’s dark in there and it’s dirty,” Collier stated. “We are put in the rooms with no key to get out.”
Collier additionally raised doubts about her constructive COVID-19 check outcomes.
“I’m a [expletive] flight attendant. I work with COVID and I’ve never had COVID,” she stated.
She later described the go to as turning “into the trip from hell,” earlier than including that she acquired “scared” after seeing a safety guard exterior of her resort room.
“Because there is someone there to attack me if I tried to leave. Now I’m being held hostage,” she stated.
Two days in the past, Collier issued a assertion on her Instagram web page, writing that she appreciated the assist and including that, “I have said a long time ago that I was never missing, nor was I kidnapped.”
Collier couldn’t be reached by the Miami Herald for remark about her firing.
The incident spawned conspiracy theories, loss of life threats to authorities officers and requires a boycott of the Caribbean nation after Collier’s Instagram video went viral. The footage was later eliminated, however not earlier than appreciable injury was achieved; some have been satisfied that she had been kidnapped. Even the U.S. Embassy in Kingston was compelled to get entangled.
In a assertion, the embassy stated it’s conscious of experiences of a U.S. citizen who “claimed to have been held against the individual’s will.”
“The U.S. government provides all appropriate consular services to U.S. citizens in emergency situations overseas and fully investigates claims of unlawful detention; however, due to the Privacy Act of 1974, we cannot release any information about a U.S. citizen without his or her written consent,” the assertion learn.
The Jamaica Observer quoted Jamaica police as saying Collier’s declare that she was being held towards her will by a native resort was “false, baseless and mischievous.”
All guests to Jamaica are required to remain within the nation’s COVID-19 “Resilient Corridor,” which incorporates inns, eating places, villas and different lodging for guests.
