You Grab the Airsick Bags, I’ll Alert the Media

Two weeks after TWA flight 800 crashed, USAir ordered pilots to turn off the public telephones in the passenger cabins in case of problems during flights. “There may be occasions where an in-flight anomaly could occur where it is desirable to disable the phone system,” said an internal USAir memorandum obtained by the New York Times. “USAir prefers to furnish press releases for in-flight anomalies instead of having the information reported live via telephone from the aircraft!” Embarrassed USAir officials quickly denied the policy was to reduce the chance of bad publicity. (AP) ...Who needs in-flight anomalies? They can obviously generate enough bad publicity without them.