United Airline Stock Crashes On False Report

A story by the The Sun-Sentinel of South Florida, declaring that UAL (United Airlines) had filed for bankruptcy, sent shares of UAL crashing this morning. Only problem? The story was six years old:

The story was actually published on Dec. 10, 2002, when the world's second-largest airline by passenger traffic entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It emerged four years later, in 2006.

Jean Medina, a spokeswoman for the airline said the Sun-Sentinel story was untrue.

Losing nearly all their value, shares of United traded at one cent in late morning on the New York Stock Exchange, down 99.92 percent, or $12.29. The trading was paused at 11:08 a.m., pending news from the company and resumed at 12:30 p.m. By early afternoon, the shares bounced back to recover the decline and were down 70 cents, to $11.60.

And just to rub salt into the wounds of those that took a major bath today, the last word goes to Richard Lehmann, president of the Miami Lakes, a Florida-based research firm:

``There was nothing in the story to indicate it was really a 6-year-old story,'' he said.

I suppose he is right in saying that there was no way to indicate that the story was six years old. However, my suggestion is, next time before publishing a story, look at the top left hand corner of the webpage from where the *lead* came from, and have a look at the date. For instance, the date on the story I'm using is from September 9, 2008. This tells me that the story is not six years old and is actually dated the same day I am posting out. Perhaps there was no date. In that case, maybe they might want to use the popular Google tool called *Search*.

So, tomorrow when the brains at the Sun-Sentinel are thinking of running with the "Bre-X is Crashing* exclusive, they might want to heed my advice.

You're welcome.

Another airline crash--msm to blame