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Feds: Unruly air traveler, 19, was "singing about Usama bin Laden" FEBRUARY 22--The man who repeatedly yelled “Allah is great” as he was removed yesterday from a plane that was forced to make an emergency landing due to his unruly behavior is a 19-year-old Saudi Arabian who was arrested Sunday night after he led Oregon police on a drunken car chase that saw him ram two cop cars and attempt to run over pedestrians, The Smoking Gun has learned. According to investigators, Yazeed Mohammed Abunayyan was smoking an electronic cigarette on a Continental Airlines flight traveling from Portland to Houston....

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.justice.gov/usao/mow/news2010/harrison.ind.htm JULY 9, 2010 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE BLACK MARKET TRAVEL AGENTS 38 DEFENDANTS INDICTED IN MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR FRAUD LOCAL INVESTIGATION EXPOSES NATIONWIDE NETWORK THAT USED STOLEN IDENTITIES, CREDIT CARDS TO PURCHASE AIRLINE TICKETS KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Beth Phillips, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced today that 38 defendants from across the United States have been charged in a series of indictments that allege an extensive network of black market travel agents who used the stolen identities of thousands of victims as part of a multi-million dollar fraud scheme...

DALLAS -- The Teamsters won an election to represent Continental Airlines ground workers who had rejected bids by other unions in recent years. The Teamsters said Friday that about 4,100 workers out of 7,600 voted to join the union. The airline industry is among the most heavily unionized in the U.S. private sector. The Continental fleet service employees were among the largest groups of nonunion workers in the industry, according to labor officials. "This is a big victory," Teamsters President James Hoffa said in an interview. "It proves there are people to organize out there." Hoffa said the union won...

ExpressJet Airlines says it's sorry 47 passengers aboard a flight to Minneapolis were forced to spend a night trapped in a grounded plane during the weekend. Airline spokeswoman Kristy Nicholas told Monday's (Minneapolis) Star Tribune that weather problems at Twin Cities International Airport Friday night forced the pilot of a Houston-to-Minneapolis flight to land in Rochester, Minn., where the regional jet sat on the tarmac for nine hours. ExpressJet was operating the plane as a Continental Express flight, the newspaper said. ExpressJet's Web site says it flies more than 200 50-passenger Brazilian-made Embraer ERJ145 aircraft for Continental Airlines. Nicholas told...

facefwd.com<>The FBI is investigating after a Continental Airlines pilot with military training reported seeing a 'missile or rocket' flying straight at his aeroplane. The pilot spotted the unidentified object flying towards his commuter flight on Friday night at 8.09pm shortly after take-off from Bush Intercontinental Airport in Texas. It barely missed the passenger jet, passing just 100 feet below it. It is not known how many were people on board the regional Continental Express flight to Greenville in South Carolina. The flight was a Continental Express flight, part of Continental Airlines The pilot immediately contacted officials, who brought in the...

Continental Airlines has revealed that it is taking legal action against nine of its pilots that allegedly got divorces so their ex-spouses could collect retirement benefits – while the pilots continued to fly. According to the airline, the pilots involved in the scam concealed the divorces from their children and their friends, and then re-married after the ex-spouses received payouts from the carrier. Continental said that the amount it paid out amounted to $10-11 million, all in pension distributions. Eight of the nine pilots involved have either quit or been fired, but one was hired back by the airline after...

The commuter plane that crashed near Buffalo was on autopilot until just before it went down in icy weather, indicating that the pilot may have ignored federal safety recommendations and violated the airline's own policy for flying in such conditions, an investigator said Sunday. Federal guidelines and the airline's own instructions suggest a pilot should not engage the autopilot when flying through ice. If the ice is severe, the company that operated Continental Flight 3407 requires pilots to shut off the autopilot.

SNIPPET: "BREAKING NEWS — A Continental Express plane with 48 people aboard crashed into a suburban Buffalo home and erupted in flames on Thursday night, killing everyone onboard. The FAA reported 44 passengers and 4 crew members were on the plane. There was one unconfirmed death on the ground." SNIPPET: "Authorities say Continental Airlines Flight 3407 was operated by Manassas, Virginia-based Colgan Air. It was en route from Newark, New Jersey to Buffalo. The plane is a Bombardier Dash 8 Q400."

The FBI is investigating a flaming projectile seen near a Continental Airlines jet after the plane left Houston Monday headed for Cleveland. (snip) The pilot reported seeing a vertical projectile with a flame and smoke trail in front of the plane over Texas.

Albuquerque businessman Stephen W. Brown doesn't consider himself a hero. But when a medical emergency struck down the captain of a nearly full Continental Airlines jet flying to Mexico, Brown climbed out of his passenger seat and into the cockpit. The 47-year-old licensed private pilot, who usually flies a single-engine Cessna, helped land the Boeing 757-300 loaded with 209 other passengers at McAllen-Miller International Airport in McAllen, Texas, on Saturday. The plane had taken off from Houston on a flight to Puerto Vallarta when the co-pilot called for help. Brown responded. "Yes, it was a rush," Brown told the Journal...

The pilot of a Continental Airlines flight became ill after takeoff and was later pronounced dead after the plane made an emergency landing Saturday, a company spokeswoman said. The 210 passengers on the flight, which departed from Houston, were never in danger and the co-pilot landed the plane safely, Continental spokeswoman Macky Osorio said. The airline said only that the pilot suffered a "serious medical problem." Continental believes the pilot died of natural causes, Osorio said. The pilot's name was not released.

McALLEN, Texas -- The pilot of a Continental Airlines flight became ill after takeoff and was later pronounced dead after the plane made an emergency landing Saturday, a company spokeswoman said. The 210 passengers on the flight, which departed from Houston, were never in danger and the co-pilot landed the plane safely, Continental spokeswoman Macky Osorio said. The airline said only that the pilot suffered a "serious medical problem." Continental believes the pilot died of natural causes, Osorio said. The pilot's name was not released. The flight, bound for Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, took off from Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport...

Steve Sweeney, his wife and a group of friends left Philadelphia early Saturday morning. They flew to Houston and then boarded their connecting flight en route to Puerto Vallarta. But while in the air, heading into Mexico, Sweeney said the passengers were issued an alert. "The co-pilot came over on the loud speaker saying if there was a doctor on board and after about 10-15 minutes they asked if there was a pilot on board," Sweeney said. Immediately, he knew something was wrong. "It was scary, my wife got nervous, she was thinking that my daughters wedding is in...

HOUSTON, March 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Continental Airlines (NYSE: CAL - News) today announced that it was again rated the top airline on FORTUNE magazine's annual airline industry list of Most Admired Global Companies. This is the third year that Continental has topped that list. Last week, FORTUNE also announced that Continental was ranked the most admired airline on FORTUNE's annual America's Most Admired airline industry list. "We are honored to have topped both America's Most Admired and Most Admired Global Companies airline industry lists," Chairman and CEO Larry Kellner said. "My co-workers work hard every day to deliver an...

(CBS 11 News) CBS 11 News has learned the City of Dallas is negotiating with Southwest and Continental Airlines to raise landing fees at Dallas Love Field. The situation has angered the mayor and city council members, who will receive a briefing on the airport budget problems in January. With operating losses at Love Field and Executive Airport climbing to more than $5.5 million, the city is now taking action. Assistant City Manager Ryan Evans told CBS 11 News he's pushing staffers to raise the landing fees paid Southwest and Continental airlines charge their customers. Higher landing fees would give...

PARIS - Continental Airlines said today it was "outraged" at reports that French authorities want to prosecute the airline and several employees over the Concorde crash that killed 113 people in Paris four years ago. The Houston airline issued a strongly worded statement after a French newspaper reported that investigating judge Christophe Regnard had summoned several Continental officials for interrogation and plans to place them under formal investigation along with the company. "We strongly disagree that anything Continental did was the cause of the Concorde accident, and we are outraged by the media reports that criminal charges may have been...

7/04/04 - HOUSTON) — A retired Continental Airlines flight attendant is challenging the airline's refusal to allow his same-sex partner to use his spousal travel passes. David Lee married David Vaillancourt on April 1 in Canada, which began recognizing gay nuptials in 2003. That didn't matter to the Houston-based airline when Lee asked that Vaillancourt be allowed to use his spousal travel passes he received after taking early retirement in 1989. "I am sorry to have to decline your request," wrote John Mitchell, a human resources official at Continental. "The provisions of the Early Out that you signed specifically do...