A Frontier Airlines Boeing 737 was struck by lightning on New Year’s Eve en route to Tampa, Fla., setting off a chain of events that culminated in the arrest of a mechanic in Denver the following day. Conforming to company policy governing post-lightning strike checks, the maintenance team in Tampa inspected the aircraft (number 313) and made an appropriate entry in the logbook. However, that didn’t satisfy the Frontier mechanic in Denver.
According to a spokesperson for the airline, and the police report, Corydon Van Dyke Cochran, 44, a Frontier Airlines mechanic based at the company’s Denver (DEN) facility, discovered a burned-out wingtip bulb on aircraft number 313 as the crew was preparing for departure to Dallas as Flight 136. That’s when, according to Cochran’s own statement, he became concerned that the maintenance team had missed the burned-out bulb in Tampa and may not have done a good job on the lightning-strike inspection. It’s not known whether Cochran considered that the light might have burned out in flight between Tampa and Denver.
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