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As luck would have it, AMR Corp. couldn't have picked a worse time to reward its top people with company stock. American Airlines Inc., its principal subsidiary, is coming off a week with 3,300 flights canceled due to inadequate inspections and modifications. And Wall Street analysts expect AMR to report a quarterly loss of around $300 million Wednesday, the parent company's worst first quarter in five years. On top of all that, the company's stock price is trading near four-year lows – less than one-fourth the price 15 months ago. Still, the company this week is set to distribute around...

ATLANTA - Air traveler angst was sure to continue Friday as American Airlines grounded hundreds more flights. The financial toll and loss of goodwill likely would grow as well, as the inspection-related mess spread further to other carriers and hurt an industry already bleeding cash thanks to high fuel costs. Lawmakers were asking questions and some fed-up air travelers headed for trains. Others gave the airlines a pass, saying the companies were doing the best they could. "If somebody's got a choice between being in a plane crash and being late, is there a choice?" Jane Bernard, a writer from...

DALLAS - American Airlines canceled 850 flights Wednesday — more than one-third of its schedule — as it spent a second straight day inspecting the wiring on some of its jets, the same issue that caused the nation's biggest airline to scrub hundreds of flights two weeks ago. American canceled nearly 500 flights on Tuesday, stranding hundreds of passengers. Federal inspectors found problems with wiring work done two weeks ago, although the airline says safety was never jeopardized. Tim Wagner, a spokesman for American, said cancellations could continue beyond Wednesday as the airline works on its MD-80 jets. American uses...

March 24, 2008, 5:00 a.m. Chilling ConfirmationYes, Saddam Hussein was an Islamofascist threat. By Deroy Murdock As Operation Iraqi Freedom is now five years old, a new study confirms that ousting Saddam Hussein was justified and vital to U.S. national security. Though war critics hate to admit it, the Baathist dictator was up to his mustache in aid for Islamofascist terrorism. As a report from the Institute for Defense Analyses explains, “captured Iraqi documents uncovered strong evidence that links the regime of Saddam Hussein to regional and global terrorism.” IDA’s review of some 600,000 documents discovered in Iraq since...

Lawsuit: Staff Did Not Help Woman After Man Ejaculated On Her A 21-year-old Harris County woman filed a lawsuit against American Airlines Monday, alleging her trip to visit family and friends in Los Angeles last spring break turned X-rated.

A major airline is under fire from environmentalists for flying an aircraft across the Atlantic with only five passengers on board. American Airlines has been accused of reckless behaviour It led to American Airlines being accused of reckless behaviour by green lobby groups. The latest “eco- scandal” flight took place on February 9 after American was forced to cancel one of its four daily services from Chicago to London. While it was able to find places for nearly all the passengers on the fully-booked flight, five still had to be accommodated. Those who did fly were upgraded to the business...

NEW YORK — An American Airlines passenger died after a flight attendant told her he couldn't give her any oxygen and then tried to help her with faulty equipment, including an empty oxygen tank, a relative said. The airline confirmed the flight death and said medical professionals had tried to save the passenger, Carine Desir, who was returning home to Brooklyn from Haiti. Desir, who had heart disease, died of natural causes, medical examiner's office spokeswoman Ellen Borakove said Sunday. Desir had complained of not feeling well and being very thirsty on the Friday flight from Port-au-Prince after she ate...

WEST PALM BEACH, Florida — Smoke filled the cockpit of an American Airlines flight from Puerto Rico, forcing an emergency landing, an airport official said. Seven people — the pilot, co-pilot, three flight attendants and two passengers — were taken to a hospital Wednesday, but none of the injuries was life threatening, The Palm Beach Post reported. A windshield was also broken, but the reason was unclear.

Although admitting he wasn't "very effective" as a spy, a federal judge today sentenced a Des Plaines man to four years in prison for his role as an Iraqi "sleeper" secretly placed in Chicago for Saddam Hussein's spy service. Sami Khoshaba Latchin, 61, was convicted by a federal jury in April. Latchin, who worked for American Airlines at O'Hare Airport, had lied about his intelligence links with the former government in Iraq and made false statements to U.S. immigration officials when he applied for naturalization in 1998. Now Latchin faces deportation - which the federal government wants - and Judge...

American Airline Employees' Honor Fallen SoldiersPOSTED: 4:07 pm EDT October 8, 2007 UPDATED: 7:25 pm EDT October 8, 2007 DETROIT -- A group of American Airlines employees’ at Metro Airport used their free time to design a military transportation cart for fallen Michigan soldiers. “Well, we created the military cart to honor the fallen soldier and we thought it was fitting to raise the bar,” said American Airlines ground crew Dan Howard. The employees solicited local businesses to design the military transportation cart. “It has been a combined effort from all. It was not an issue that American Airlines said...

ORONO, Maine -- Charles Frank Burlingame III was the pilot flying American Airlines Flight 77 on Sept. 11. Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon with 64 people onboard. It is believed Burlingame helped divert the plane from its original destination -- the White House -- by literally fighting off the terrorists in the cockpit. In an FBI report released after the crash, it was revealed that the pilot died of injuries sustained before the plane hit the ground. Burlingame's family has requested that he be buried in Arlington Cemetery in Virginia, an honor bestowed only on soldiers and their families. ...

In a lawsuit similar to many others that preceded it, American Airlines is taking on Google's keyword-based AdWords business by alleging the practice is a blatant example of trademark infringement. The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Fort Worth, makes the same argument presented by a number of other companies that have sued the search giant during the past five years: Google has no right to sell company trademarks for use as keyword triggers that elicit paid advertisements. In addition to the assertions of trademark infringement and other claims, the lawsuit alleges Google engages in false advertising when it...

NEW YORK, Feb 15 (Reuters) - AMR Corp. (AMR.N: Quote, Profile , Research) , parent company of American Airlines, might be a buyout target of a group including Goldman Sachs (GS.N: Quote, Profile , Research) and British Airways (BAY.L: Quote, Profile , Research), say people familiar with the matter, according to the Feb. 26 edition of BusinessWeek magazine. The proposed bid is said to be between $9.8 billion, or $46 a share, and $11.1 billion, or $52 a share, according to the magazine. Sources say it is uncertain that a bid for the company will materialize, BusinessWeek said. Neither Goldman...

Angry passengers pitch airline changes By TREBOR BANSTETTER STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER Passengers on an American Airlines flight that was stuck on the tarmac in Austin for nearly 10 hours last month are pushing for a national Passengers Bill of Rights to protect traveling consumers. The proposal would require airlines to return passengers to terminal gates after three hours on the tarmac. It would also impose penalties on airlines for losing baggage and bumping passengers, and create a consumer committee to review and investigate complaints. The measure doesn't yet have a backer in Congress. But it comes as lawmakers are increasing...

A federal jury has ordered American Airlines to pay $400,000 to a computer consultant who was pulled from a flight at Logan International Airport because of security concerns, then denied reboarding even after he had been cleared by State Police. "I felt like I was being treated like a terrorist and there was no way I could prove I didn't do anything or say anything at all," said John Cerqueira , 39, who grew up in Fall River and now lives in Miami. "I'm grateful to the jury for sending the message to American Airlines that just the use of...

Terror threat? Er, no ... it's B.O. 03:43 PM CST on Monday, December 4, 2006 Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A flight headed to Dallas-Fort Worth was diverted in Nashville on Monday after passengers reported the smell of burning matches, which officials said came from a woman trying to hide body odor. The 99 passengers and five crew members were evacuated from the American Airlines plane after it landed around 6:40 a.m., Nashville Airport Authority spokeswoman Lynne Lowrance said. The plane, which was en route from Reagan National Airport in Washington, was searched, and luggage was screened. Matches were found...

A woman claims she landed on a hyperdermic needle filled with fluid as she was sitting down in her seat after returning from the restroom on an American Airlines flight into Dallas. Sueanne Lineberger spent a night in the emergency room after her finger jabbed the needle while reaching back. "When I sat down I felt something stick me in my rear end and I yelled," she said. "It hurt." Lineberger was taken to the emergency room where she said ER doctors could not tell her what was in the syringe and possibly in her body. They referred her to...

An email American just sent out: Mr. xxxxxx, I think it is important for you to know that ABC had factual errors in its dramatization, and we are looking at possible legal actions as a result. According to the 9-11 Commission report, it was not American Airlines, nor was it even the right airport that was depicted. In reality, it was another airline, flying out of Maine. Please know this was a tragic incident in our company's history and we hope you will be sympathetic to our employees and our airline on this day especially. Again, we are outraged by...

"ABC's airing of its "Path to 9/11" docudrama last night has drawn its first lawsuit threat, and the surprise is that it's coming not from angry Democrats but from an "outraged" American Airlines..."

I didn't know if there was a west coast version of this thread. It didn't make sense to post on thread for the show that was almost over on the East Coast.