Free Republic

SAN ANTONIO - Families with young children are usually invited to board their flights first, along with other special needs passengers. But what if families with children weren't among the first to board? Might the process go more smoothly? While it might sound counterintuitive, it's something Southwest Airlines has been experimenting with on flights from San Antonio. "The major goal is to try to give a better customer experience for boarding," said Susie Boersma, manager for airport performance improvement. The airline's effort to improve the boarding process comes at a time when the entire airline industry is struggling with increased...

A confident Southwest Airlines (LUV:NYSE) beat analysts' first-quarter targets Thursday and said it might very well meet or exceed its own goal of 15% earnings growth this year. On top of that forecast, the carrier said it plans to grow its fleet as well, by exercising options for 79 additional Boeing jets. Despite a 10% rise in unit costs, driven by sky-high fuel prices, the Dallas-based carrier made $61 million, or 7 cents a share, in the quarter, compared with $59 million, or 7 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding hedging losses and gains, earnings rose to 8 cents...

Woman wins $27.5 million Southwest suit Associated Press EL PASO — A jury awarded $27.5 million in damages to a woman of Iranian descent who alleged she was racially profiled when Southwest Airlines accused her of assaulting a flight attendant and interfering with a flight crew. Samantha Carrington, of Santa Barbara, Calif., won in the civil case Friday after suing the Dallas-based carrier for false imprisonment and malicious prosecution. Carrington was arrested by federal authorities in 2003 after her Houston-to-Los Angeles flight made a scheduled stop in El Paso. Criminal charges were never filed. According to court records, three flight...

EL PASO, Texas - A jury awarded $27.5 million in damages to a California woman of Iranian descent who alleged she was racially profiled when Southwest Airlines accused her of assaulting a flight attendant and interfering with a flight crew. Samantha Carrington of Santa Barbara won in the civil case Friday after suing the Dallas-based carrier for false imprisonment and malicious prosecution. Carrington was arrested by federal authorities in 2003 after her Houston-to-Los Angeles flight made a scheduled stop in El Paso. Criminal charges were never filed. According to court records, three flight attendants said Carrington, a naturalized citizen from...

Someone with a suspicious device is being arrested on a plane at Burbank Airport.....FD is requesting Burbank and Glendale Hazmat to respond.... 146 passengers affected...

Expert says Midway plane crash was avoidable By Jon Hilkevitch Originally published December 15, 2005 CHIAGO // The city of Chicago and Southwest Airlines have "carelessly ignored" for years the risks of short runways and insufficient over-run areas at Midway Airport, an expert on transportation disasters said yesterday in a report on last week's fatal accident. The crash was avoidable, and the outcome would have been much worse if fuel tanks on the plane ruptured and caught fire, said Gunnar Kuepper, chief of operations at Emergency & Disaster Management Inc., a Los Angeles-based company that advises government agencies and private...

Washington December 15, 2005 - The National Transportation Safety Board today released the following update on its investigation into the accident involving Southwest Airlines flight 1248, a Boeing 737-700 on December 8, 2005, at Midway Airport in Chicago, Illinois. The airplane overran runway 31C during the landing rollout. The accident occurred about 7:14 pm central standard time. The airplane departed the end of the runway, rolled through a blast fence, a perimeter fence, and onto a roadway. The airplane came to a stop after impacting two automobiles. One automobile occupant was fatally injured and another seriously injured. The flight was...

CHICAGO - A jetliner that skidded off a landing strip and into a city street needed about 800 more feet of runway to come to a safe stop, federal investigators said Thursday. The Southwest Airlines jet crushed a car, killing a 6-year-old boy, after it skidded off a 6,500-foot runway and crashed through a fence at Midway International Airport earlier this month. A preliminary investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board shows the airplane touched down with about 4,500 feet of runway remaining, but snowy conditions and other factors meant the plane ideally needed about 5,300 feet of runway, according...

Southwest pilot violated braking policy December 14, 2005 BY MARK J. KONKOL Transportation Reporter The Southwest Airlines pilot at the helm during Thursday's snowy crash at Midway Airport told federal investigators he used the Boeing 737's "autobrakes," a device airline officials say their pilots are told not to activate. National Transportation Safety Board investigators said they found the autobrake switch in the "maximum" position on the flight panel. The system is designed to activate when the landing gear hits the runway.

Last night, a Southwest Airlines plane skidded off a runway at Chicago's Midway Airport, killing a six year-old boy who was a passenger in a car on Central Avenue. On a another snowy December 8 thirty-three years ago, a United Airlines plane crashed into some homes near Midway, killing 45 people. Among the passengers on the flight was West Side Chicago Congressman George Collins and Mrs. Dorothy Hunt, wife of Watergate scandal figure Howard Hunt. In Dorothy's luggage was over $10,000 in cash, widely believed to be "hush money" for her husband's "silence."

<p>There were no immediate reports of injuries on the plane, which had flown from Baltimore. One person was initially reported as injured in a car that collided with the plane. The plane's nose was resting on the ground.</p> <p>Ambulances and fire trucks rushed to the scene, in the northwest corner of the airport, which is surrounded by roads and a residential area.</p>

A plane has apparently crashed through a fence at Midway airport in Chicago. Southwest airline 737 plane now sitting in intersection of 55th and Central. Channel 7 has confirmed, fire and ambulances on way. Details still sketchy.

Manchester — A Southwest flight from Las Vegas to Manchester lost cabin pressure Sunday night, forcing 131 passengers to don oxygen masks and the pilot to descend rapidly, the airline said yesterday. "It was definitely some tense times on the plane," said Dr. Christopher J. Newton, a Manchester passenger. DR. CHRISTOPHER J. NEWTON, passenger "All of a sudden, you had a pretty significant popping of the ears, then the oxygen masks came down," he said. "I believe the pilots put the plane into a descent." "When we were going down, the natural thing that goes through the mind is,...

Southwest-Boeing Field battle escalates Southwest Airlines' proposal to utilize Boeing Field is stirring organized opposition, while the airline promises to mitigate noise concerns if Boeing Field service is adopted. On Tuesday, a consortium opposed to Southwest operating at Boeing Field, led by leaders of the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce, will hold a briefing to "announce the formation of an alliance that is opposed to establishing commercial passenger jet service at King County International Airport (Boeing Field) in Seattle." Meanwhile, Southwest says it will operate quiet planes at Boeing Field. In an Aug. 18 letter to King County Executive Ron...

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Federal agents arrested a San Antonio, Texas, man on Tuesday for leaving a written bomb threat on board a Southwest Airlines flight last week, according to a statement from U.S. Attorney Chuck Rosenberg. Southwest Airlines Flight 21 landed at a Houston airport on Friday after the note was found. The 136 passengers and five crew were held for questioning while the Boeing 737 was searched for weapons or explosives. None were found. The note is believed to have been a hoax by Elias Jeremiah Cervantez, 20, of San Antonio, as the plane flew from Odessa, Texas, to...

Click to enlarge HOUSTON - A note found in a Southwest Airlines seat pocket claiming a bomb was on the plane prompted a landing and evacuation on an isolated stretch of runway Friday, but bomb-sniffing dogs found no signs of explosives, authorities said. Investigators interviewed and re-screened the 136 passengers who had been on the flight from Dallas to Houston. Three passengers who saw the note were still being interviewed late Friday afternoon, but no one had been taken into custody, FBI spokesman Al Tribble said. Tribble said he didn't have the exact wording of the note, but "it...

Travelers bound for Corpus Christi were detained in Houston for hours Friday after a passenger found a note claiming there was a bomb onboard their Southwest Airlines flight. The passenger alerted the crew about the note, prompting the plane to land at an isolated part of Hobby Airport, authorities said. No one was injured, and bomb-sniffing dogs found no evidence of explosives on the plane, said Andrea McCauley, spokeswoman with the Transportation Security Administration. That was good news for Belia Segura of Harlingen, who was waiting anxiously for the arrival of her granddaughter Elizabeth Rodriguez, 16, at Corpus Christi International...

ABC News Breaking News Item - A Southwest Airlines jet has been diverted to Houston Hobby Airport due to a bomb threat. No details . . . .breaking news.

As Southwest Airlines has grown into the nation's dominant discount airline, overwhelming the competition at Baltimore-Washington International Airport and forcing other carriers to match its low-cost model, the one place it hasn't been able to expand is in its hometown. For 26 years, a federal law named after a former speaker of the House has limited where Southwest can fly from Dallas Love Field, a move made to protect Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport when it was new. Today, DFW is five times Love Field's size and is dominated by Fort Worth-based American Airlines. Southwest released a report this week contending...

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Severe turbulence on a Southwest Airlines flight injured five people and put the plane out of commission while airline inspectors checked the aircraft for problems, officials said. The five people, including three flight attendants, were taken to an area hospital for treatment after the plane bound from Las Vegas to San Jose landed at about 2:50 p.m. Monday, said Joanne Sanfilippo, spokeswoman for Mineta San Jose International Airport. The incident aboard Flight 943 occurred about a half hour after the Boeing 737 left Las Vegas, Sanfilippo said. Passenger Laura Taay said as the plane suddenly dropped,...