Free Republic

DEVELOPING: A plane reportedly is being quarantined after landing in Chicago, and the investigation is said to involve the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Aviation officials in Chicago say the city's health department and fire department have responded to a flight that landed at Midway International Airport, but local police and fire officials told Fox News the CDC is handling it.

A Delta Air Lines flight coming from Pittsburgh caught fire as it landed on the runway at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport late Saturday afternoon. Four passengers sought first aid for minor injuries, but no one was hospitalized, according to Atlanta Fire Capt. Jolyon Bundridge. The flight had 44 passengers and five crew members, according to information from Delta. The brakes on the plane -- #2284 -- overheated on the taxiway, which caused the fire, Delta said, using information from their operations control center. FAA officials reported that the plane blew a tire while landing. The plane has been taken out of...

NEW YORK (AFP) – Hollywood heartthrob Leonardo DiCaprio, star of "Titanic," was among passengers on a Delta Airline jet forced to make an emergency landing in New York after losing one engine, a report said Monday. DiCaprio, 36, "avoided disaster at 30,000 feet," UsMagazine.com reported. The plane, bound for Moscow, had to return to John F. Kennedy airport shortly after take-off Sunday when an engine suddenly shut down.

A Delta Airlines flight carrying 244 passengers from Amsterdam to Mumbai on Thursday night landed in emergency conditions at the airport in Mumbai due to an unidentified object in the plane’s cargo-hold.

All that's available right now is the headline: Breaking News: Delta Flight Makes Emergency Landing in Mumbai Due to Suspicious Object in Cargo Hold, India News Outlets Reporting

MINNEAPOLIS – Delta Air Lines blamed a paperwork mix-up for sending two children to the wrong cities as they flew under the airline's unaccompanied minors program. Delta said the children were connecting through Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on Tuesday when they were put on the wrong connecting flights because of a "paperwork swap." Delta spokesman Paul Skrbec on Wednesday said a boy ended up in Cleveland instead of Boston while a girl was sent to Boston instead of Cleveland. He would not release information about the children, citing passenger privacy. WHDH-TV in Boston identified one of the children as 9-year-old...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - A Delta Air Lines flight from Los Angeles to Florida was diverted to Albuquerque early Friday after a passenger sprayed the first-class cabin with a water bottle, tried to open a cabin door and threatened to blow up the aircraft. Crew members and passengers on Delta flight 2148 to Tampa subdued Stanley Dwayne Sheffield, 46. He was taken into federal custody after the plane landed at 1:30 a.m. Friday. FBI Supervisory Special Agent Darrin Jones said authorities do not believe the incident was related to terrorism. Sheffield, whose hometown in Florida wasn't disclosed by investigators, was charged...

Flights are routinely canceled because of weather delays or mechanical problems, but passengers trying to fly from Rochester, N.Y., to Atlanta Thursday found their trip canceled for another reason: the flight attendants reportedly got into a fistfight. Passengers told local news channel YNN Rochester that the flight, a Delta Connection flight from Rochester, N.Y., to Atlanta, was canceled after the two female flight attendants started fighting. "Apparently they got into a fistfight on the plane," passenger Steve Mazur told local news YNN. "The pilot decided to kick everyone off the plane." "They told us we had to get off the...

A man is hauled off a plane at Capital Region International Airport Sunday night, after passengers tackled him during take-off. An airport spokesman will only tell us there was an incident. But News Ten has talked with three passengers on Delta Flight 3679 who told us what happened. Take-off was delayed, and the pilot said it was because of bad weather in Detroit. During that delay, flight attendants asked several large men to move to the front of the plane. Several passengers tackled a man who had demanded to sit near the cockpit. They held him down while the plane...

An Orlando-bound Northwest Airlines flight was diverted to Nashville this morning after a suspicious item was discovered on board the plane. The item: a Christmas ornament. "A suspicious item was found and out of an abundance of caution, the pilot decided to divert to Nashville," said Delta Air Lines spokesman Carlos Santos, whose company recently acquired Northwest. "Fortunately it turned out to be a harmless article."

A male passenger reportedly linked to terrorist organization al-Qaeda ignited a powdery substance prior to landing on a Delta Airlines flight to Detroit Friday. The suspect is believed to be Nigerian, Fox News reported. Several people were hurt and one person was admitted to the University of Michigan Medical Center at Ann Arbor, hospital spokeswoman Tracy Justice said. An emergency was declared aboard the flight, operated as Northwest flight 253, according to a Federal Aviation Administration spokesperson. The suspect, who suffered second-degree burns, told federal investigators he was directed by al-Qaeda, though authorities are questioning the veracity of that statement,...

A passenger on a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam, Netherlands, to Detroit, Michigan, caused a brief disturbance Friday at the end of the trip by igniting firecrackers, a Delta Air Lines spokeswoman said...

Despite an economy languishing in high unemployment and low consumer confidence, more American companies are jumping on the bandwagon to provide support for homosexual and transgender employees. More than 300 firms have now received perfect 100 percent scores in this fall's Corporate Equality Index, produced annually by the Human Rights Campaign which ranks businesses on their "treatment" of employees who have chosen homosexual, lesbian, bisexual and transgender lifestyles. The list, which saw a 20 percent increase this year in the number of perfect scores, includes newcomers such as theater giant AMC Entertainment, Costco, Delta Air Lines, Food Lion and General...

In between keeping her passengers safe and comfortable, Delta flight attendant Robin Schmidt tends to another mid-air mission -- passing journals among the rows so passengers can help her thank American troops. Over the last five years, Schmidt has filled hundreds of passenger-written journals and sent them to the troops she "adopts" in Afghanistan and Iraq. Not connected in any way to the military, Schmidt said, "This is just part of who I am. This is what I do." And on the other side of the world, she's got a lot of grateful military men and women. "The soldiers often...

Plane Makes Emergency Landing In Nashville Passenger Subdued After Threatening Other Travelers NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- A jet that took off from Seattle bound for Atlanta made an emergency landing in Nashville after a passenger had to be subdued, according to Nashville International Airport officials. Officials said Paul Benjamin Paul Marchuk III was threatening passengers and quoting Bible passages while on board Delta flight 1050. Other passengers managed to subdue him. Marchuk, 22, of Canton, Ga., was turned over to Metro Nashville police. According to a police arrest warrant, "The suspect would not allow the person sitting next to him to...

Even though there was a slight hitch in their plan, a group of Boy Scouts who while on their way to a national competition in Indiana found themselves stranded in Atlanta, are now on their way. After exhausting all other options to find a flight that would get them to Indiana before 8 a.m. Sunday, the Scouts were able to rent a charter bus, which Delta will be covering the cost, said Carlos Santos, Delta spokesman. Although they bought their plane tickets in April, the group of 30 Boy Scouts and their eight chaperones were forced to rent the bus...

Delta Air Lines has added a $5 surcharge for paying checked baggage fees at the airport instead of online, matching moves by some other airlines. Atlanta-based Delta already charges $15 for the first checked bag and $25 for the second checked bag on domestic flights. But starting Aug. 4, Delta will start charging those who pay for checked bags at airport ticket counters, kiosks and curbs $20 for the first checked bag and $30 for the second checked bag, for tickets purchased July 15 or later. The fees for paying for checked bags online remain the same.

ATLANTA, Oct. 29, 2008 – Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE: DAL) and Northwest Airlines, Inc. today merged, creating a premier global airline with service to nearly all of the world’s major travel markets. The new airline, called Delta and headquartered in Atlanta, will begin its first day as a combined company with a commitment to delivering excellent service to customers in 66 countries and more than 375 worldwide cities – more than any other airline; with a dedicated base of approximately 75,000 worldwide employees; and with a best-in-class cost structure and strong liquidity balance that better positions the company to...

Delta to Join Northwest to Form World’s Largest Airline By JEFF BAILEY The boards of Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines announced a deal late Monday that will create the world’s biggest airline and probably trigger other airlines to pursue mergers of their own. Directors of the two airlines approved the deal in telephone conference calls. If they approve the deal, shareholders of Northwest would receive 1.25 Delta shares for every Northwest share that they own, a person with direct knowledge of the arrangement said Monday evening. Seven board members from Delta and five from Northwest would join the board...

Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines this week are expected to announce a long-anticipated merger, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday. The merger may to be unveiled as early as Tuesday, The Journal reported, adding that the deal could go through without support of Delta's 6,000 pilots. Delta and its pilots were holding separate talks this weekend on a post-merger contract, while negotiations with Northwest's 5,000 pilots were to be held at a later date, the daily reported. Last week, US authorities gave tentative approval for Delta, Northwest, and four of their international partners to combine their transatlantic routes in...

I was on a 5:45 PM flight from Atlanta to Newark, NJ on Delta tonight. As I went to my seat in row 44, I passed by a young man in fatigues (he was in row 42) and, as any Freeper would do, thanked him for his service and asked him if he was going to be home for the holidays. He said "yes I will be" and I wished him a merry Christmas and took my seat.As we were landing, the flight attendant said that we had a young army man just back from Iraq who was coming home...

A large shareholder in both Delta Air Lines and United Airlines on Wednesday urged the two companies to merge, a transaction that would create the largest domestic carrier. Pardus Capital Management, a New York-based hedge fund with more than 2 per cent of Delta, the third-biggest US carrier, and a 4.8 per cent stake in UAL, corporate parent to second-ranked United, argues the merger would represent the best possible combination of large US airlines. Record fuel prices, high labour costs and excess capacity on many routes have led several airline chief executives, including Delta’s Richard Anderson and United’s Glen Tilton,...

Two Arrested At Atlanta Airport With Hidden Knives, Razor Blades POSTED: 6:46 am EDT November 1, 2007 UPDATED: 12:01 pm EDT November 1, 2007 ATLANTA -- Authorities say they have ruled out terrorism in an incident in which two men tried to sneak knives and other weapons onto a flight from Atlanta to New York. One of the men even made it through security and onto the Delta Air Lines flight. Both have been charged with state violations of carrying concealed weapons, according to an Atlanta police report. Authorities surrounded 60-year-old Chhaganbhai Patel at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on October...

The passengers aboard Delta Airlines Flight 1824 flying out of Orlando International Airport last Thursday at 7:15 a.m. heard the following statement over the intercom as they were preparing to taxi onto the runway on their way to Atlanta, Georgia: Ladies and gentlemen, we have been informed that there is "a credible security risk with this aircraft" and we are returning to the terminal.

"Credible Security Risk" Those are the words of the pilot on Delta Flight 1824 out of OIA, after it pulled back from the gate Friday morning to take off for Atlanta. Nine Middle Eastern passengers, six males and three females, had been denied access to the plane when TSA screeners found they were carrying an array of suspicious items ranging from hydrogen peroxide, which can be used to make bombs, to wires and Vaseline bottles taped together. Perhaps most disturbing, what one TSA worker tells me were the first positive tests for SEMTEX ever reported by security at OIA. SEMTEX...

Airline manufacturer Boeing Co. (BA), major airlines and several airport operators sued the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency on Tuesday in a bid to question current and former agency employees in connection with negligence litigation over the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks. In separate lawsuits, the airlines and others are challenging decisions by the FBI and the CIA that prevent them from conducting depositions of those employees. The airlines include AMR Corp.'s (AMR) American Airlines, UAL Corp.'s (UAUA) United Airlines, US Airways Group Inc. (LCC), Delta Air Lines Inc. (DAL), Continental Airlines Inc. (CAL) and AirTran Holdings...

Robert McKee is a Fort Worth resident who just spent SEVEN HOURS on the tarmac at JFK aboard the same Delta scheduled flight to DFW that I took so disastrously a few weeks ago. Unlike me or any of the passengers on our airplane, he took video ... and has made a terrific YouTube film of the experience. Note especially the part where his wife Emily, back in Fort Worth, called Delta to check on the status of his flight, and was told that that flight had left hours ago. She told the guy no, it hadn't, that she had...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Delta Air Lines may order as many as 125 Boeing Co. 787 jetliners by the end of this year, The Wall Street Journal Online reported on Tuesday, citing Delta's operating chief Jim Whitehurst. The order, still being negotiated, would be valued at an estimated $20 billion at list prices, according to the report. Delta could not immediately be reached for comment. A spokesman for Boeing, reached at the Paris air show, said the company does not comment on speculation about future orders.

With loud music playing and its employees cheering, Delta Air Lines paid tribute to Hank Aaron today by unveiling a new 757 aircraft adorned with artwork of Aaron in his home run pose. The chief financial officer of Delta Air Lines, Ed Bastian, and Aaron pulled back the tarp to reveal the Hank Aaron 755 aircraft at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Bastian called Aaron "a true Hall of Famer and a humanitarian." Aaron broke baseball's career home-run record by hitting his 715th homer at old Atlanta Fulton County Stadium on April eighth, 1974. He finished his career in 1976 with...

Congress repeals Wright Love flights anywhere allowed when bill signed as early as next week 07:50 AM CDT on Saturday, September 30, 2006 By SUDEEP REDDY / The Dallas Morning News WASHINGTON – Congress approved legislation late Friday to repeal the Wright amendment, potentially resolving a decades-old battle over the role of Dallas Love Field.

NEW YORK, Sept 5 (Reuters) - A U.S. bankruptcy court on Tuesday allowed Delta Air Lines Inc. (DALRQ.PK: Quote, Profile, Research) to terminate its pilot defined benefit pension plan, clearing a major hurdle in its restructuring plans -snip

WHITE PLAINS, New York (AP): Delta Air Lines Inc. told a bankruptcy judge Friday it has no choice but to eliminate its pilots' pension plan if it is to come out from bankruptcy and remain afloat. The third biggest U.S. air carrier had asked to end its pension plan for pilots effective on Saturday, saying that keeping it in place would mean a "crippling'' operational and financial crisis that would prevent it from emerging from bankruptcy protection as it hopes to do by mid-2007. But the plan, for now, stayed in place, as the hearing was set to continue on...

A passenger plane carrying 50 people has crashed shortly after taking from an airport in Kentucky. The Comair CRJ-100 jet, bound for Atlanta, Georgia, went down in woods about a mile (1.6km) from Lexington's Blue Grass airport. There are a "significant number of casualties" said a spokeswoman for the US Federal Aviation Administration. Comair Flight 5191 came down just after 0600 (1000 GMT), and emergency crews were sent to the scene. The plane was carrying 47 passengers and three crew members, the FAA said. Comair is a unit of Atlanta-based Delta airline.

Passengers physically restrained a man on a flight from New York City who stormed toward the cockpit of a Delta flight as it was about to land at Tampa International Airport shortly after 11 p.m. Thursday.

FORT WORTH, Texas -- The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports JetBlue and Northwest Airlines will actively fight the Wright Amendment compromise reached by American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and D/FW leaders. The Star-Telegram reports the airlines claim the compromise was hatched in a back room and would stifle competition. Just as the mayors of Dallas and Fort Worth huddled in Washington with airline executives and congressional leaders, word of the first opposition takes flight. JetBlue and Northwest said they were never invited to the settlement talks. The compromise, opening up Dallas Love Field to nationwide flights over eight years, was struck between...

Bhopal (ICNS) -- In a gruesome incident, two Christian women in a remote village in Madhya Pradesh have been raped by a group of Hindu activists as punishment for changing their religion. Briefing reporters about the incident on Monday, Indira Iyengar, a member of the Madhya Pradesh State Minority Commission, said that the rape had taken place in the remote district of Khargaon. “We have received the reports that two tribal Christian women have been raped by some Bajrang Dal activists. This heinous crime has been inflicted on these poor women as punishment for changing their religion from Hinduism to...

OK, I guess this is how you run an airline to make a profit in bankruptcy so maybe I should give them a break. Perhaps there is a mad rush to the door to use frequent flyer miles and that also is my bad. Going to a Florida location, company is paying my ticket and taking along son who will travel on freqent flyer miles - made reservation 2 weeks ahead of time. Ticket now cost about 2X what it did 2 years ago Charged rapid redemption fee ($50) for Frequent Flyer - changed the rule last week from 2...

A lot of people are starting to grow tentative about traveling with the possibility of a Delta Air Lines pilots’ strike just days away. It would be the first ever walkout for Delta pilots, and most agree it would mark the beginning of the end for the Atlanta-based airline as a whole. The question -- what is a traveler to do? Local travel experts admit even they are in somewhat uncharted waters. It’s fair to say that with each day that passes lately, travel agent Jean Pickard fields more and more phone calls. “We’re getting them frequently, and its people...

ATLANTA - Delta Air Lines Inc. pilots, angered by management's effort to throw out their contract and impose deep pay cuts, voted by a wide margin to authorize a strike, union leaders said Tuesday. The 94.7 percent vote in favor of authorizing a strike gives union leaders the authority to set a strike date. They didn't set a date immediately and gave no indication when they might act. The results were announced in a memo to pilots from the chairman of the union's executive committee, Lee Moak. An arbitration panel must decide by April 15 whether to void the pilots...

ATLANTA (AP) -- Almost 275 Delta Air Lines Inc. pilots marched through the world's busiest airport Thursday to vent their anger over the company's effort to throw out their contract so it can impose up to $325 million in long-term pay and benefit cuts. ADVERTISEMENT The pilots for the nation's third-largest carrier have stepped up picketing at airports around the country and other demonstrations of unity despite a warning to turn down the noise issued by the arbitration panel considering the company's contract rejection request. The panel chairman, Richard Bloch, told both sides after hearings in Washington ended March 23...

Negotiations between Northwest Airlines (NWACQ:OTC BB) and its pilots reached a critical point Thursday as a bankruptcy court deadline for a deal expired. Meanwhile, talks between Delta Air Lines (DALRQ:OTC BB) and its pilots are headed for arbitration. In the Northwest case, it's unclear when U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Allan Gropper will issue a ruling on whether the airline can impose contract terms on its pilots, a move that would likely lead to a strike. Gropper didn't say when he would rule, according to a Wednesday night posting on the Web site for the Northwest chapter of the Air Line...

It was the fourth night after Hurricane Katrina, and something like a thousand patients, doctors and staff were trapped at Medical Center Louisiana in downtown New Orleans, surrounded by floodwaters. Outside, reports were grim. People were drowning in their attics. Inside the hospital, there was no running water, no power, no phones and no Internet. Cell phones didn’t work. Each day the authorities said evacuations were about to begin, but nothing happened. The staff thought they’d seen everything the disaster could bring. Then, in the middle of the night, a pregnant woman dragged herself out of the foul, dark water...

ATLANTA, Dec. 11, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- Delta Air Lines, Inc. (Other OTC:DALRQ.PK - News) confirmed today that it has reached a tentative interim agreement with the Air Line Pilots Association, International (ALPA), the collective bargaining representative of the company's more than 6,000 pilots. Subject to pilot ratification by no later than December 28, 2005, the tentative interim agreement provides for a 14 percent hourly wage reduction and reductions in other pilot pay and cost items equivalent to approximately an additional one percent hourly wage reduction. The interim cost reductions would be effective December 15, 2005 and would remain in effect...

WASHINGTON, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Leaders of the pilots union at bankrupt Delta Air Lines (DALRQ.OB: Quote, Profile, Research) voted on Thursday to seek a strike authorization vote from members, the labor group said. The timing of a vote had not been determined, according to the Delta unit of the Air Line Pilots Association, which is fighting a company bid to throw out its contract to save money as it restructures in bankruptcy.

President Bush is expected to sign a bill today that will open up air service between Dallas Love Field and points in Missouri for the first time since 1979, when Congress imposed limits in the Wright Amendment. "The president is expected to sign the bill [today]," White House spokesman Trent Duffy said. In the morning, the president is giving a major speech on Iraq at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. Upon his return to the White House, Duffy said, Bush will sign several appropriations bills, including a bill funding the Transportation Department and other agencies. That bill contains...

NEW YORK — Delta Air Lines Inc., which lost $2.6 billion in the first nine months of this year, needs the $3 billion in annual cost savings from its reorganization plan to survive, chief financial officer Edward Bastian told a bankruptcy court on Monday. He also said the company is not prepared for a strike by pilots and that such a strike would be "devastating." But U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Prudence Carter Beatty said Delta may have been wrong to spend $2.4 billion to buy back its own shares before it filed for bankruptcy in September. "It is a question...

ATLANTA — Delta Air Lines Inc., which is reorganizing under protection from the federal bankruptcy court, announced plans Friday to discontinue its discount carrier Song and incorporate Song's fleet into Delta's regular service. Song will continue to fly as a separate brand until May 2006, Delta officials said Wednesday. After May, Delta plans to refit the single-class Song airplanes to include first-class seating to make the planes conform with Delta's regular service. Joanne Smith, currently president of Song, has been named vice president of consumer maketing for Delta, effective immediately. Atlanta-based Delta filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from creditors...

When Delta Flight 1880 landed late Saturday at Logan International Airport, the pilot went on the intercom to make a request of the passengers preparing to grab their carry-on bags: Sit for a moment and honor a fallen soldier. ''The pilot said, 'We have a hero on this flight and sadly, he isn't with us, but his mother is escorting his remains,' " said Barbara Bell, sister of Sergeant Pierre A. Raymond, 28, an Army reservist from Lawrence who died Tuesday in Germany after being wounded in Iraq. The normal bustle of an emptying airplane immediately ceased, she said. ''He...

ATLANTA Sep 22, 2005 — Delta Air Lines Inc., the nation's third-largest carrier, said Thursday it will cut up to 9,000 jobs, reduce employee pay and make changes to its route network to focus more on international flying as it moves swiftly to restructure its costs in bankruptcy. The changes are part of the airline's effort to save an additional $3 billion annually by the end of 2007. That's on top of $5 billion Delta had previously said it wanted to save by the end of 2006. The company's chief executive, Gerald Grinstein, will take a 25 percent pay cut...

ARLINGTON, Texas, Sept. 14 / -- Today two major U.S. airlines, Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 ultimately could be to blame. While the bankruptcy petitions will generate another ripple in the airline industry, it is expected to have minimal impact on travelers, says Tom Parsons, CEO of Bestfares.com, an Internet site that monitors airfares. "Protecting its frequent flyer program will be a top priority for Delta and Northwest as their proceedings take place in bankruptcy court," says Parsons. "Because of the airlines' code share agreements with...