Free Republic

A Queens woman was arrested by federal authorities after a JetBlue flight was forced to make an emergency landing because she allegedly lit and refused to extinguish a cigarette on the plane and punched a flight attendant in the face, according to KUSA.com. The plane was en route from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York to San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday when officials said passenger Christina Szele, 35, lit a cigarette in her seat and starting smoking, the Rocky Mountain News reported. Smoking is forbidden on all domestic flights, but the Rocky Mountain News reported that when a...

A New York City man is suing JetBlue Airways Corp. for more than $2 million because he says a pilot made him give up his seat to a flight attendant and sit on the toilet for more than three hours on a flight from California. Gokhan Mutlu, of Manhattan's Inwood section, says in court papers the pilot told him to "go 'hang out' in the bathroom" about 90 minutes into the San Diego to New York flight because the flight attendant complained that the "jump seat" she was assigned was uncomfortable, the lawsuit said. Mutlu was traveling on a a...

<p>A man is suing JetBlue Airways Corp. for more than $2 million because he says a pilot made him give up his seat to a flight attendant and sit on the toilet for more than three hours on a flight from California.</p>

NY man sues airline over flight spent in toilet Mon May 12, 2008 6:52pm EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York man who says he was denied a seat on a five-hour jetBlue flight and was instead told to "hang out" in the plane's bathroom has sued the airline for $2 million, saying he suffered "extreme humiliation." When Gokhan Mutlu arrived to check in for a jetBlue flight from San Diego to New York in February he was told the flight was full, according to the lawsuit filed in New York State Supreme Court. But Mutlu was allowed to...

Woman denies the allegations NEW YORK (WABC) -- A woman trying to board a JetBlue flight in New York City is accused of causing a a bomb scare at JFK Airport. The Daily News is reporting the woman, 44-year-old Rosalinda Baez, was trying to board a JetBlue plane but was stopped by an attendant because the jetway had closed. In a complaint filed with the Brooklyn Supreme Court, prosecutors allege that Baez told the attendant her suitcase was on the plane and asked, ""What if I had a bomb in my bag?" Baez, a Dell web consultant, says she asked:...

NEW YORK (AP) - The head of JetBlue Airways Corp. said Tuesday the low-cost carrier expects to boost its noncore revenue by 60 percent this year, in part by charging passengers extra for more legroom. "What we want ... is the ability to upsell," Chief Executive David Barger said. Speaking at an investment conference in New York, Barger said "demand is solid across the JetBlue network," and he assured analysts the carrier is "in the middle of a momentum story," in spite of industrywide worries of a slumping economy and sharply rising fuel prices. Like a number of its competitors,...

Earlier this week we confronted JetBlue CEO Dave Barger about his airline sponsoring a conference held by the hate-filled Web site, the Daily Kos. That far-left concern routinely posts vile thoughts such as Tony Snow should die from cancer, the pope is a primate, and Israel deserves to be attacked. The hate this Web site traffics in rivals the KKK and Nazi Web sites. Since JetBlue was the only major company sponsoring the Kos conference, we wanted to know why. So we confronted Barger. Well, today the CEO sent us this statement: "Because the only thing JetBlue has done with...

Bill O’Reilly Takes on JetBlue’s Sponsorship of Daily Kos Convention Posted by Noel Sheppard on July 16, 2007 - 17:35. According to Bill O’Reilly’s website, the Fox News host Monday evening will be taking on a decision by airliner JetBlue to sponsor YearlyKos, the second annual convention of Daily Kos and company: Talking Points Memo & Top Story JetBlue and the radical left Why would JetBlue sponsor a hateful far-left website? We'll discuss it. This information was obviously made available to the Kossacks, as regular DK diarist mcjoan had plenty to say on the subject in a posting early Monday...

A 2 ½-hour JetBlue Airways flight bound from Fort Lauderdale to New York on Wednesday turned into a 25-hour odyssey that finally ended Thursday afternoon, as a chain of problems left 150 passengers staggered by the mind-boggling delay. The cascade of problems occurred just four months after a disastrous five-day period in February when the airline canceled more than 1,000 flights in the New York area. And it again raises questions about how much of the blame should fall on airlines when flights encounter unexpected delays. Flight 62's takeoff at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday was delayed for three hours. The jet...

NEW YORK, May 1 (Reuters) - Four JetBlue (JBLU.O: Quote, Profile , Research) employees and a New York City corrections officer were arrested on Tuesday on charges of splurging with credit cards forgotten by passengers rushing to catch their flights, prosecutors said. The arrests come as the low-cost airline struggles to rebuild customer confidence after a February storm triggered the cancellation of some 1,200 JetBlue flights and left passengers stranded or fuming on grounded planes for hours. An probe by Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau found that the five, who included three customer service agents and a flight attendant, went...

JetBlue Airways recently made headlines after the worst operations breakdown in its seven-year history led to more than 1,000 canceled flights. There’s been just as much good news about the way chief executive David Neeleman responded to the crisis - by bending over backward to admit failure, accept responsibility, apologize and compensate customers for their inconvenience. Everyone from public relations experts to aviation analysts is praising Neeleman for doing things that are largely unheard of in corporate America. While many chief executives would have ducked for cover or dispatched a spokesman, Neeleman appeared on David Letterman’s show and said, “I’m...

JetBlue canceled 68 flights because of snow Monday, nearly a week after the airline pledged to compensate customers for more than a thousand canceled flights from the Valentine's Day storm two week earlier. The canceled flights at John F. Kennedy International Airport affected flights to or from Columbus, Ohio; Richmond, Va.; Washington, D.C., Portland, Maine; and Chicago. The company also canceled flights into and out of Chicago and the Washington, D.C., area over the weekend. The cancellations were an attempt to make sure crews and planes were situated so the company could quickly resume operations after the snow, JetBlue...

What do JetBlue and Britney Spears have in common? Both have experienced a serious reputation collapse in the past several days. In the case of JetBlue, it had a lot to lose. Troll any cocktail party in Palm Beach these days and you'll meet weekenders who swear by JetBlue. These are the folks who head out to Kennedy Airport on a Friday afternoon, climb aboard the 3:05 flight, confidant that they'll arrive in time for dinner and a well-earned weekend in the sun. They probably don't even care that Delta is offering a cheaper nonstop; they like JetBlue. More importantly,...

r bill of rights Tuesday that promises vouchers to fliers who experience delays in a move it hopes will win back passengers after an operational meltdown damaged its brand and stock price. JetBlue customers will be compensated based on the length of the delays. The vouchers range from $25 to the full amount of the ticket. The delays include airplanes unable to taxi to the gate within 30 minutes and flight departures held up for a minimum of three hours, according to a program copy provided to The Associated Press. If JetBlue cancels a flight within 12 hours of its...

NEW YORK — Low cost fares, quirky blue potato chips and even a mea culpa from JetBlue Airways' founder may not be enough to ease passenger anxiety as the airline braced for another day of disrupted flights Monday. The company said it would be canceling almost a quarter of its flights but hopes to be fully operational on Tuesday, almost a week after a Valentine's Day snowstorm created a meltdown for the airline. David G. Neeleman, the company's founder and chief executive, told The New York Times in Monday's edition that he was "humiliated and mortified" by the breakdown in...

Thanks to the stupidity of JetBlue, we now have Congress coming to the rescue with more regulations. JetBlue debacle spurs passenger rights bill in congressBoxer to introduce legislation in Senate to boost fliers' rights

(CBS) QUEENS Jet Blue Airlines apologized late Wednesday to dozens of passengers who were kept sitting on planes at New York's JFK Airport for 10 hours or more without ever taking off.

<p>Last year, thousands of JetBlue Airways passengers became unwitting participants in a highly unusual test of pilot fatigue.</p> <p>Without seeking approval from Federal Aviation Administration headquarters, consultants for JetBlue outfitted a small number of pilots with devices to measure alertness. Operating on a green light from lower-level FAA officials, management assigned the crews to work longer shifts in the cockpit -- as many as 10 to 11 hours a day -- than the eight hours the government allows. Their hope: Showing that pilots could safely fly far longer without exhibiting ill effects from fatigue.</p>

EW YORK -- A Pakistani-born pilot is suing JetBlue Airways Corp. for discrimination, claiming the airline rescinded a job offer and told him it was because of his background. Faisal Baig, a U.S. citizen who was raised in Yonkers, claims in the suit that an airline manager told him in March that he was a "security risk." According to the suit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, Baig asked, "Are you saying that you are not hiring me because of my name or my religion? ... Are you saying you are not hiring me because of where I'm from?" The manager...

Pakistani-Born Pilot Sues JetBlue, Claiming Racial Discrimination NEW YORK (AP) -- A Pakistani-born pilot is suing JetBlue Airways Corp. for discrimination, claiming the airline rescinded a job offer and told him it was because of his background. Faisal Baig, a U.S. citizen who was raised in Yonkers, claims in the suit that an airline manager told him in March that he was a "security risk." According to the suit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, Baig asked, "Are you saying that you are not hiring me because of my name or my religion? ...

NEW YORK — A flight to Puerto Rico was diverted to John F. Kennedy Airport shortly after takeoff early Sunday because a fight broke out on board, officials said. Three women were questioned and one was briefly detained, FBI spokeswoman Christine Monaco said. The FBI was still investigating and would decide later whether charges would be filed, Monaco said. It appeared that one woman had started a fistfight with the other two, said Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the area's airports. The fight took place on JetBlue Flight...

As the U.S. airline industry unraveled over the past five years, JetBlue Airways Corp. proved that a carrier with the right mix of low overhead, cheap fares and distinguished service could succeed during a punishing downturn. The outlook for most big airlines is still pretty grim, with Delta Air Lines Inc. and Northwest Airlines Corp. in bankruptcy, and the rest unlikely to show a profit in 2006. What has changed, though, is that investors now lump JetBlue among the lackluster. The tarnish on JetBlue's reputation comes just as a few money-losing carriers, such as AMR Corp.'s American Airlines and Continental...

JetBlue is hitting some turbulence By James Bernstein Once a darling of the airline industry, JetBlue Airways Corp. is now in a spot many industry experts once thought hardly possible: the red. For the first time since it began flying in 2000, the airline - known for its low fares and such extras as leather seats and individual TV sets - lost money, $42 million in the last quarter of 2005, an amount larger than expected. In announcing fourth-quarter results last month, JetBlue said that, based on current and expected fuel prices, the airline does not expect to make a...

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - The pilot who successfully landed an airliner with a broken landing gear at Los Angeles International Airport in September was presented one of North Carolina's highest honors Wednesday by Gov. Mike Easley. Scott Burke, 46, brought the JetBlue airliner down amid a shower of sparks in an emergency landing broadcast live on national television. No one was hurt. Burke, who has lived in Raleigh for about 15 years, received the Order of the Long Leaf Pine. "Captain Burke exhibited true courage and skill under tremendous pressure," Easley said. "The 140 passengers on Flight 292 survived because...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - JetBlue Airways Corp. said on Tuesday it will use new 100-seat jets to begin up to 10 daily flights between New York and Boston, taking on competitors in a long-established air shuttle service on the same route. New York-based JetBlue also said it would use the Embraer 190 planes to start flying from New York's JFK International Airport to Austin, Texas; Nassau, Bahamas; Richmond, Virginia; and West Palm Beach, Florida. The Boston-New York route will make JetBlue a direct competitor of the traditional air shuttle service flown by bankrupt Delta Air Lines Inc. and by US...

"the seventh time that the front wheels on an Airbus A-320 have gotten locked in the wrong position.. ..JetBlue's long-term maintenance of its aircraft. When the planes are inspected for damage and then reassembled, the work takes place either in Canada or El Salvador... JetBlue doesn't fly outside the United States.. Salvadoran mechanics make $300 to $1,000 a month..Roughly one-third of the Salvadoran mechanics have passed the exam that qualifies them for the Federal Aviation Administration's license, while in the United States, such licenses are required for all mechanics employed directly by the airlines."

For years, airlines controlled what passengers saw on their cabin screens, editing out scenes of graphic violence or sex, and banning movies altogether if they showed airline crashes. But now, with three U.S. airlines offering live television feeds and on-board Internet access expected to be available within a year, passengers can see anything they want -- even news coverage of an event in which they might be taking part. After the drama aboard JetBlue Flight 292 unfolded live on television Wednesday, executives of Denver-based Frontier Airlines, which like JetBlue shows DirectTV on its flights, began to rethink their policy of...

The problems with JetBlue Flight 292 marked at least the seventh time that the front landing gear of an Airbus jet has locked at a 90-degree angle, forcing pilots to land commercial airliners under emergency conditions, according to federal records. No one has been injured in the incidents, which span about a decade. There are more than 2,500 planes from the Airbus 320 family, which includes the Airbus 318, 319 and 321 models, in operation worldwide. Aviation safety officials Thursday said the planes have a good safety record. In the most recent case, JetBlue's flight from Burbank to New York's...

On almost any New York-bound plane out of the Los Angeles area, chances are a celebrity will be on board. ADVERTISEMENT click here The ill-fated JetBlue Flight 292 was no exception. Hustle & Flow stars Taryn Manning and DJ Qualls were among the 145 passengers and crew on the plane en route from Burbank's Bob Hope Airport to New York's JFK Wednesday that was forced to make an emergency landing due to defective landing gear. "Yesterday was a life changing day," Manning said in a statement released by her publicist Thursday. "The pilot is a true hero. I'm thankful to...

A Jet Blue airliner landed safely at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Thursday after its pilot reported a problem with the wing flaps as the plane prepared to descend, an airline spokeswoman said. No injuries were reported. The emergency landing ..

WASHINGTON -- There have been at least seven cases in which the front wheels on Airbus A320s became stuck in a sideways position, forcing pilots to make emergency landings. No one was hurt in any of the landings, the latest of which occurred Wednesday night in front of a national television audience when a JetBlue plane touched down in Los Angeles amid smoke and sparks as the front tires disintegrated. The incidents, unnerving to be sure, are nonetheless considered anomalies and have not prompted federal authorities to take action beyond ordering airlines to follow Airbus instructions for replacing rubber seals...

Concerning the Jetblue emergency landing yesterday, a question came to me. They flew around LA for three hours using up fuel because they couldn't dump the fuel. Nothing else was wrong with the plane, so why didn't they fly to NY (their destination) and land there? What does it matter where the landing took place? At least everybody would have been where they were going,and the fuel wouldn't have been wasted. Am I nuts here?

...The landing gear had not retracted, the pilot said. ... The back of each seat on a JetBlue plane is equipped with a small television set. As passengers watched, live, in-flight broadcasts of MSNBC and Fox News began to show their airplane. Ash glanced at the television of the passenger next to him: "At first I just thought, 'Of course, Fox News,' " he said, discounting the story as sensationalized. "But then it was on MSNBC." ... But his humor faded as he listened to television commentators talking about the flight. "One guy was saying, 'You know, I'm just speculating,...

After looking carfully at the replays of the JetBlue landing tonight, I noticed during landing that the nosegear flames and fires were pulsing on and off during the landing. The flames became quite fierce during the "roll"out of the aircraft, but would diminish and suddenly flame-on strongly again. If you watch the landing carefully, you will see the times that the flames pulse on are the moments when the nose gear is scraping on the painted stripe on the runway. This is very significant. The FAA, airlines and manufacturers are always concerned with fire and especially fire avoidance and fire...

LOS ANGELES – A JetBlue airliner with faulty landing gear touched down safely Wednesday evening at Los Angeles International Airport after circling the region for three hours with its front wheels turned sideways and unable to retract into the plane. As passengers inside the plane watched the drama unfold on television sets in the cabin, the pilot landed using the back wheels first and then easing onto the front tires. The front wheels smoked, popped and sparked as the plane rolled to a stop on an auxiliary runway set apart from the main terminals. No one was hurt. "We all...

<p>Moments ago, there was a safe landing of JetBlue light 292 out of Burbank that was bound for JFK.</p> <p>I can report exclusively from a secret source under deep cover that Hillary Clinton and John Conyers are going to demand a Congressional investigation. President George W. Bush must be held accountable.</p>

A Jet Blue aircraft just did a low altitude flyby of Long Beach airport after reporting some concern with their forward gear. The television helicopter caught an image of it - the gear is turned sideways and tilted. Aircraft is heading out towards the ocean to drop fuel, will turn around, and attempt a 'soft field' landing, keeping the nose up as long as possible.

By Patrick Markey NEW YORK (Reuters) - A JetBlue Airways pilot waiting for take-off at John F. Kennedy International Airport saw the American Airlines flight that crashed on Monday as it fell from the sky accompanied by smoke and a smaller piece of the aircraft, according to an internal report. The pilot told the JetBlue officials that in its final moments American Airlines Flight 587 appeared to be in a very steep descent, falling nose down at about 80 degrees in a spiral dive. Before it exploded on impact, the aircraft was accompanied by the smaller piece above and to ...

AIRPORT DISTRICT -- Passengers on Tuesday morning's inaugural flight of JetBlue service between Burbank and New York City were treated to New York-style hot dogs and pretzels in the terminal. And airport fire vehicles sprayed water over the airplane as it approached the gate. Delia Ibarra, of Los Angeles, was the first passenger to get off the plane after it pulled up to Gate A9 at Bob Hope Airport. "We used to come to Long Beach [Airport] but this is so much better for us," Ibarra said. "I am so excited." JetBlue's three daily nonstop flights are the first service...

Sees sights after G.I. helped him get lifesaving surgery An Afghan boy brought to the U.S. last month for a heart operation after a soldier took up his cause came to New York yesterday to sightsee and show off the boundless energy of a typical 12-year-old. "Before, I cannot walk so much," Assadullah Khan said during the whirlwind trip with his father and interpreter to meet the "nice people" who helped save his life. "Now, I walk everywhere. I can walk and run." Until last month's operation to patch a hole in his heart, Assadullah could barely walk across a...

Big companies are hoping to marry their brands to gays and lesbians this weekend — about 20,000 of them. In the first days after the presidential election — in which gay marriage proved to be a pivotal issue — the nation's biggest exposition on homosexual life is setting attendance records. Booths for exhibitors are also sold out for the first time at the Javits Center, which since 1999 has hosted Gay Life Expo, one of the center's liveliest trade shows. Companies ranging from Citigroup and American Express to Jet Blue and J.P. Morgan Chase are hawking their offerings to the...

...Bloody-minded optimists say... the climactic shake-out is finally upon us. Once the cleansing is done, the airlines will go back to being profitable and sustainable like "normal" industries. Don't bet on it. Airlines have shown an ability to mint short-term profits in an economic bounceback when demand grows faster than they can lay on more jets and gates. But that's not the same thing as being able to make profits consistently enough to pay back the capital invested in the industry. The airlines have never been able to do this, at least not since deregulation.... Airports, meanwhile, are local monopolies...

Please don't fly JetBlue Airways--as George Soros is the major stockholder in that airline. Every time you fly JetBlue (stock symbol JBLU)--you are helping to fund George Soros's efforts to defeat the President! http://finance.yahoo.com/q/mh?s=JBLU By checking the ownership of JetBlue--you'll see that Soros himself owns 5,896,797 shares of JBLU--worth about $150,000,000.Soros Fund Management, LLC, owns 11,803,916 shares of JBLU--worth about $298,000,000! Please pass the word about JetBlue and George Soros!!!!

NEW YORK - JetBlue Airways Corp. said it plans to exercise options to buy 30 Airbus A320 aircraft. The discount carrier did not disclose financial terms when announcing the decision on Tuesday. The move means JetBlue now has firm orders for 123 A320s and holds options on 50 more. For now, the Forest Hills, N.Y.-based airline's fleet consists of 60 A320s. It expects to receive nine more this year and delivery of up to 17 a year until 2012. The A320, a single-aisle aircraft that typically seats 150, is made by Airbus North America Holdings, a subsidiary of Airbus S.A.S....

<p>If you'd be happy to fly seated next to the next Mohamed Atta, then don't worry about the crusade to cancel the Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System. If you do want terrorists kept off planes, start worrying about the smear campaign now underway in the name of "privacy." Our nation's intelligence agencies failed to "connect the dots" before 9/11. And a left-right alliance of privacy extremists is doing its best to keep it that way: These "privocrats" have shot down nearly every proposal to use intelligence more effectively, terming them an assault on "privacy."</p>

<p>WASHINGTON — Federal employees who persuaded JetBlue Airways to give a defense contractor personal information about 1.5 million passengers — without their knowledge or permission — will have to undergo training about privacy issues. Employees of the Transportation Security Administration broke the spirit, but not the letter, of federal privacy laws, Nuala O'Connor Kelly, the chief privacy officer for the Department of Homeland Security, said Friday. She said fewer than six current employees were involved.</p>

<p>A Pentagon contractor may have violated privacy laws by collecting personal information on more than 1 million JetBlue Airways customers to develop passenger profiles, according to key senators.</p> <p>The contractor, Torch Concepts, said it used the names, addresses and phone numbers in a data-mining program to "best distinguish normal JetBlue passengers from past terrorists."</p>

According to the document, JetBlue secretly provided 5 million passenger-name records, involving some 1.5 million passengers, to a Huntsville, Alabama-based defense contractor called Torch Concepts, which government officials say was participating in a military base security program for the Defense Department. One of Torch Concepts' vendors, Little Rock-based Acxiom Corporation, then used the JetBlue data to extrapolate Social Security numbers and other private information on almost half these customers, according to the document, which was a Torch Concepts presentation on passenger risk assessment. ... A December 2002 Defense Department report on security and privacy, which can be found on the...

WASHINGTON - When two Russian immigrants and their American financial backer needed marketing help for their innovative electric motor, they turned to a merchant banker at one of the nation's largest investment houses - retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark. The meeting at the Washington office of Stephens Inc. in late 2001 proved fortuitous for both Clark, the former supreme commander of NATO, and the principals in WaveCrest Laboratories, at the time a small research and development company in Dulles, Va. "They hit it off pretty much right away," said WaveCrest spokesman Tom McMahon. Clark signed on as a consultant...

Security Aide Prods Airlines to Yield Data on Travelers By MATTHEW L. WALD WASHINGTON, Sept. 26 ? Needing information on airline passengers for a test of the government's new computerized screening system, the Transportation Security Administration, rebuffed by JetBlue Airways, is looking for a substitute that can provide it, the agency's administrator said today. But the official, Adm. James M. Loy, said that because no one airline wanted to single itself out as the provider, he hoped to get the data from the industry as a whole. And if he cannot get the airlines' cooperation, he said, he will simply...