Skip to Content

Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.

Map of the world

Angry flight attendant sets fire to aircraft

Talk about an immature way to handle a tough shift. Eder Rojas, a Compass Airlines flight attendant who was unhappy that he was assigned to fly to Saskatchewan decided that he would get back at his employer, a subsidiary of Northwest Airlines, by lighting the plane on fire.

Shortly after liftoff, apparently Rojas set up his beverage cart then stewed his way back to the rear lavatory, where he took a lighter the paper towel holder. It obviously started smoking, which set the smoke alarm in the cockpit off, which prompted an inquiry from the pilot. Now with the lav starting to burn, Rojas played dumb and he and another passenger quickly had to put the fire out to prevent the entire aircraft from going up.

Once the feds started asking questions and found the lighter in an overhead bin, Rojas fessed up to sneaking the contraband past security and starting the fire.

How foolish and angry do you have to be to try to start your aircraft on fire while it's traveling at 600MPH? While the maximum penalty for his crime is twenty years in prison, the fact that he put seventy six lives at risk should call for a public beating and some time in a stockade.


Filed under: Airlines, News

Search Travel Deals

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Add your comments

Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

When you enter your name and email address, you'll be sent a link to confirm your comment, and a password. To leave another comment, just use that password.

To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br /> tags.

Gadling Features




Categories

Become our Fan on Facebook!

Gadling on Facebook

Tickets, travel guides, hotels & more

Featured Galleries (view all)

Dim Sum Dialogues: Bangkok
Pueblos of New Mexico
Queenstown, NZ
Dim Sum Dialogues: Kowloon Walled City
Fox Glacier
TranzAlpine Railway
In & Around Auckland
Air New Zealand Matchmaking Flight
Bungle Bungle Range

Sponsored Links

Autoblog Green

Daily Finance

Download Squad

Engadget

Joystiq

Luxist

Switched.com

FanHouse

WoW