AirTran fires attendant
accused of bomb threat
By DON PLUMMER
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer
Turhan Lamons got his wished-for day off, but probably not in the way he had hoped.
When a supervisor turned down the rookie AirTran Airways flight attendant's request for the day off Tuesday, police say he called back -- with a bomb threat.
"All passengers on Flight 278 are going to die," was all the caller said to AirTran gate attendant Nicole Miller before he hung up.
Everyone was taken off the plane, which was moved to an area away from the terminal and searched with bomb-sniffing dogs. Passengers then had to reclaim each piece of luggage before reboarding and taking off for Boston, nearly two hours late.
But within hours Lamons, 21, of Atlanta was in jail, charged with making a false alarm and lying to investigators. On Wednesday he remained in the Clayton County Jail pending the posting of $10,000 bond on felony charges that could net Lamons 10 years in prison.
While officials at AirTran handled the call as a possible terrorist action, they don't think Lamons is a terrorist.
"We believe he is just a disgruntled employee," said AirTran spokesman Tad Hutcheson, "a tremendously disgruntled employee."
Lamons also may have been tremendously inexperienced at covering his tracks. The threatening call was made from the five-month AirTran employee's cellphone to an unlisted AirTran gate number, Hutcheson said.
"We figured a customer is not going to call the gate," Hutcheson said. Hutcheson said he was amazed at the speed with which Atlanta police and federal agents traced the call and arrested Lamons. "It happened in the morning and we had the arrest within hours," he said.
Reached at her home in Louisiana on Wednesday, Lamons' mother said she knew of her son's arrest, but had no comment on the charges.
It was the second scare in two days for AirTran officials. On Monday, an AirTran passenger was pulled off a plane in Savannah because his name is similar to one on a watch list created after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. The man, who was flying to Atlanta, was detained and questioned but was not arrested, said Savannah International Airport spokeswoman Lori Griffin.
As for Lamons, he has been fired. "When we found out he had been arrested by the Atlanta police, he was terminated by the company," Hutcheson said.
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