Continued: Woodbury flight attendant charged with starting fire on flight

A 19-year-old flight attendant from Woodbury charged with allegedly setting a fire in a restroom during a Northwest/Compass Airlines flight from Minneapolis to Regina, Saskatchewan said he did it because he was mad at the airline for making him work that route.

Eder H. Rojas admitted that he deliberately started the fire in a restroom in the rear of the plane, which was forced to make an emergency landing at Hector International Airport in Fargo, N.D. on May 7, according to a court complaint filed Thursday in United States District Court in Fargo.

None of the 72 passengers and four crew members aboard flight 2040 was injured, but they were detained in the gate area as FBI agents and police processed the Embraer 175 aircraft as a crime scene, court documents said.

"It¹s pretty upsetting to learn that the people that you put your trust in

when you get on that airplane is the guy who (allegedly) caused the fire in

the first place," said Reginan Ryan Boughen, of Regina, Sask., who was in row 16 on the side opposite the rear bathroom and witnessed the events as they unfolded. "It makes you look at everybody in a different light."

About 35 minutes into the flight, Rojas, another flight attendant and a passenger used a fire extinguisher to knock down the flames and smoke that was pouring out from a paper towel dispenser in a rear bathroom, the complaint said.

Boughen estimates that when the alarm went off, the male attendant later identified at Rojas, stood in the aisle for at least 30 seconds before he moved.

"I yelled that I smelled smoke and eventually he did go back there to check

it out," Boughen said. "He peeked into the bathroom and I saw this yellowish-greyish smoke pour out the top of the door and then he closed the door right away."

Authorities from the National Transportation Safety Board determined that the fire was not a result of a mechanical or electrical failure on the aircraft. An agent with the Bureau of Alcohol. Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said that the fire was "intentionally set inside the napkin/paper towel compartment, with the most likely ignition point being an extra packet of paper towels in the compartment."

Rojas had requested additional paper towels and tissue just before the flight departed Minneapolis around 9:30 p.m. Rojas placed those items in the bathroom dispenser where the fire started, the court complaint said.

In the complaint, Rojas admitted to authorities that as he was preparing his cart to serve passengers when he reached into the restroom and used a lighter to light the paper towels on fire. He said he was upset at being assigned to fly the route.

If convicted, Roas faces a fine and up to 20 years in prison.

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