A former Comair flight attendant faces 10 years in prison after a jury found him guilty of setting fire to one of the airline’s Bombardier CRJs, forcing it to make an emergency landing in Rome, Ga. The incident occurred on May 8, 2003, almost three years to the day of 26-year-old Turhan Lamons’ prosecution for interfering with a flight crew to cause an emergency landing, committing arson on board a commercial aircraft and using fire to commit a felony. The defense claimed that someone else lit the fire in the CRJ’s lavatory before the 50-seat regional jet took off from Atlanta for a short flight to Huntsville, Ala. The jury deliberated for four hours before concluding that Lamons started the fire. In March last year a separate jury found Lamons guilty of grounding an AirTran Airways flight with a false bomb threat.
Ex-Comair FA Convicted of Arson
- September 19, 2006, 5:01 AM