Flight Attendant Faces Charges Over Plane Fire
Posted: 6:12 a.m. EDT July 18, 2003Updated: 5:03 p.m. EDT July 18, 2003
ROME -- A ComAir flight attendant was arrested Thursday
after being accused of starting an airplane lavatory fire that
forced an emergency landing in Rome on May 8.
A federal grand jury indicted Turhan Jamar Lamons on a charge of
attempting to set fire to, damage, destroy, disable and wreck
ComAir Airlines Flight 5491 from Atlanta to Huntsville, Ala.
The 50-passenger plane landed at Richard B. Russell Regional
Airport after reports of smoke coming from the lavatory. None of
the 48 passengers and three crew was injured. Investigators found
partially burned newspaper in the restroom.
Lamons, 23, also is charged in Clayton County, the site of
Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport, with making a bomb threat
against an AirTran Airways flight one week after Sept. 11, 2001,
when he was a rookie flight attendant for AirTran.
Atlanta police accused Lamons of making the call because his
request for a day off had been turned down and he did not want to
fly.
A Clayton County magistrate dismissed the terroristic threat in
October 2001, but the district attorney's office continued
investigating and obtained an indictment against Lamons for the
AirTran incident in April.
Lamons, of Morrow, was hired by ComAir, a Delta Air Lines
subsidiary, in August 2002.
Lamons' lawyer, Robert Mack of Jonesboro, said his client has
pleaded innocent to the Clayton charges. "I have no idea why
they've charged him with that," the lawyer said.
Mack said he was unaware of the Rome indictment but knew Lamons
was under investigation.
ComAir spokesman Nick Miller said Thursday that ComAir
continuously reviews its employee applicant screening programs.
Since May 8, Miller said, the airline has been rechecking the
backgrounds of all its 5,500 employees.
He said flight attendants "go through all federally mandated
background checks that all other airline employees do."
A federal grand jury indicted Turhan Jamar Lamons on a charge of
attempting to set fire to, damage, destroy, disable and wreck
ComAir Airlines Flight 5491 from Atlanta to Huntsville, Ala.
The 50-passenger plane landed at Richard B. Russell Regional
Airport after reports of smoke coming from the lavatory. None of
the 48 passengers and three crew was injured. Investigators found
partially burned newspaper in the restroom.
Lamons, 23, also is charged in Clayton County, the site of
Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport, with making a bomb threat
against an AirTran Airways flight one week after Sept. 11, 2001,
when he was a rookie flight attendant for AirTran.
Atlanta police accused Lamons of making the call because his
request for a day off had been turned down and he did not want to
fly.
A Clayton County magistrate dismissed the terroristic threat in
October 2001, but the district attorney's office continued
investigating and obtained an indictment against Lamons for the
AirTran incident in April.
Lamons, of Morrow, was hired by ComAir, a Delta Air Lines
subsidiary, in August 2002.
Lamons' lawyer, Robert Mack of Jonesboro, said his client has
pleaded innocent to the Clayton charges. "I have no idea why
they've charged him with that," the lawyer said.
Mack said he was unaware of the Rome indictment but knew Lamons
was under investigation.
ComAir spokesman Nick Miller said Thursday that ComAir
continuously reviews its employee applicant screening programs.
Since May 8, Miller said, the airline has been rechecking the
backgrounds of all its 5,500 employees.
He said flight attendants "go through all federally mandated
background checks that all other airline employees do."Copyright 2003 by WSBTV.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.












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