We may never know if Eder Rojas, the flight attendant on a recent Compass Air flight from Minneapolis to Regina, Saskatchewan, was trying to bring down the plane or just barbecue it a bit when he set fire to the paper towels in the airplane’s rear lavatory, forcing an emergency landing in Fargo, N.D. What we do know is that his misdeeds are just the latest episode of Stewards Gone Wild.
Atlantic Southeast flight attendant Sarah Mills was arrested and had to appear in court, answering to charges that she was drunk while on the job. She was also in trouble for her remark, “You’re dead,” to the flight’s captain as she was removed from the plane. Oddly enough, she plead not guilty to the charges but then admitted to drinking whiskey on the job. In her defense, she was probably just confused — being drunk can have that effect.
United Airlines flight attendant Janet Tucker was arrested after turning herself in for “accidentally” carrying a handgun aboard a flight from Dulles to Atlanta, recently. She was cited on charges of having a concealed weapon at the airport and scheduled to appear in court at a later date. Hopefully, the judge went easy on her. After all, she did turn herself in.
Clearly, there are plenty of such wild stories on domestic flights alone — no need to look internationally for out of control flight attendants. That being said, it is at least worth mentioning the Kenya Airways flight attendant who was arrested after being discovered with nearly 28 kilos of heroin.
I think this begs the question: When is a flight attendant no longer a flight attendant? The answer, of course: when she’s a mule.
We know that flight attendants aren’t the only ones who occasionally misbehave on a plane but the fact that it does happen from time to time is, nonetheless, certainly noteworthy.
Back to Eder Rojas. What caused his temper to apparently flare? Turns out he was angry at the airline over the route he was assigned. You might say he was flaming mad. It may have made more sense to flame off in a letter to his boss, don’t you think?
Rojas appeared in court Thursday and was ordered to be held without bail. The charge of setting fire aboard a civil aircraft carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
Apparently, no one else asked this question, so I will: What should Compass do with Rojas in terms of disciplinary action.
If you said “fire him,” you are correct.
Oh, come on. You had to see that one coming.
