How’s this for an attention-seeking psycho: An American Airlines flight attendant was arrested when he set fire to an aircraft bathroom while aboard a flight and then attempted to portray himself as the hero when he was really the culprit.
Johnathan Tafoya-Montano attempted to make up several versions of the story, but eventually admitted to the FBI that he had intentionally set fire to the rear lavatory’s paper towels using a green Bic lighter. I wonder if it was a small or big one.
Once it gained intensity, he then put the fire out. He exited the bathroom, stood in the hallway for several minutes and then pretended to discover “a fire”. He then proceeded to extinguish the remaining smolders on the paper towels with a fire extinguisher.
The captain was notified. The control tower was alerted and Flight 1418 was granted emergency status to land at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. No one was injured.
According to court testimony, Tafoya-Montano had worked for American Airlines for about a year and a half. Before that, he worked for a doctor’s office in New Mexico, where he spent most of his life and has close family ties. His only brush with the law involves a DUI conviction in 2014 in Albuquerque, N.M., for which he got probation.
A motive is not immediately known.
[source: usatoday]
