Quick post. Here’s a lovely article on a nineteen-year-old flight attendant for a partner of Northwest Airlines who didn’t want to fly a specific route at work — so he allegedly started a fire inside a paper towel compartment in the rear bathroom of the plane.

• Flight attendant accused of setting fire on airplane – Yahoo! News

Things that bother me:

• He allegedly boarded the plane with extra paper towels and a lighter. Excuse me, where the hell is TSA? Why do I have to take off my shoes but this tool can walk through the airport with Quilted Northern and a lighter?
• He didn’t just call in sick with the blue flu like most employees who want to send a message — he just got even.
• He’s a nineteen-year-old flight attendant.

Doesn’t 19 seem a little young to be responsible for the safety & security of 40+ passengers on an airplane, by the way? You can’t even drink but you can be a flight attendant? Weird.

In any case, there seems to be a new math in the airline industry.

• Low wages + horrible work environment = fire on planes.

I miss the good old days of crappy airplane food & stale peanuts.