NWA Flight Attendant Set Airplane Bathroom On Fire

We just cannot make this stuff up. A Northwest Airlines flight attendant set an airplane bathroom on fire. Eder H. Rojas was arrested in Minneapolis and charged in federal court for setting the Compass Airlines, a subsidiary of NWA, paper towels on fire in the lavatory because he was upset that he had to fly the Minneapolis to Regina, Saskatchewan route. Boo-hoo.

Compass Airlines flight 2040 made an emergency landing on May 7th, 2008 and the flight attendant was originally credited with extinguishing the fire and scurrying passengers to the first-class section of the plane.

Dummy of the Month Candidate: NWA Flight Attendant and Pyro

Eder H. Rojas is a 19-year-old man – maybe we should say boy – from Woodbury, MN. Poor Eder Rojas may not see day light until he is 39-years-old, as the charge for setting fire aboard a civil aircraft carries a maximum penalty of 20 years.

Authorities said this naive pyro attendant asked for extra paper towels and tissue before the plane left Minneapolis and then used a lighter to torch the stuff – a lighter which he got through security. I guess he didn't think this would raise any flags.

Court documents had this to add:

"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,"

How Many Planes Will NWA Emergency Land in 2008?

One public embarrassment after another. This must be doing wonders for the anticipated NWA and Delta merger.

First an NWA flight loses a nice piece of it's wing:

Now we have Eder “Pyro Hands” torching a flight because he is a disgruntled employee.

We can't wait for the next one!