Law & Justice & aircraft firegeezer on 16 May 2008 08:58 am
Flight Attendant Arrested For Setting Plane On Fire
A FLIGHT ATTENDANT FOR COMPASS AIRLINES WAS ARRESTED Wednesday and charged yesterday with setting a fire onboard his aircraft during flight.
Eder Rojas, 19, is being held without bail after admitting that he started the fire on May 7 in the plane’s bathroom. He said that he was angry that the airline was making him work that particular route. The plane was on a flight from Minneapolis to Regina, Saskatchewan, and was carrying 72 passengers plus four crew members.
The Associated Press reports:
“Rojas further stated that he was preparing his cart to serve the passengers, he set the cart up, went back to the lavatory and reached in with his right hand and lit the paper towels with the lighter,” court documents said.
Pilot Steve Peterka told authorities that an indicator light came on about 35 minutes into the flight, showing smoke in the rear bathroom.
Peterka called Rojas, who was assigned passengers in the back of the plane, and asked him to check the bathroom, documents said. Rojas, another flight attendant and a passenger were credited with quickly putting out the flames with fire extinguishers, authorities said.
Investigators later found a lighter in one of the overhead bins. Rojas confessed after authorities interviewed him, the complaint said.
The plane was in the vicinity of Fargo, North Dakota, when the fire was started. The pilot then took an emergency action and flew directly to the Fargo airport, descending from 30,000 ft. to touchdown in eight minutes.
The plane was met by the airport crash/rescue crew along with police and FBI agents.
Compass is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Northwest Airlines. A company spokesman says that Rojas has been fired.
You can read some of the passengers’ accounts of the emergency HERE.
The AP story on the arrest is HERE.
