Local News in Brief : Pilot Alleges Conspiracy
A former Continental Airlines pilot is accusing Continental and the Federal Aviation Administration of conspiring to cover up a long history of safety violations by the airline, but both Continental and the FAA have denied the allegations.
Federal officials noted that the FBI investigated some of the allegations last year and found no grounds for prosecution.
Len Nahmi, who last flew for Continental in 1980 and is a party in a class-action suit against the airline over a labor dispute, offered a laundry list of accusations but little evidence to back them up during a lengthy statement to reporters at the Greater Los Angeles Press Club.
Nahmi suggested that the alleged safety violations contributed to the crash of a Continental DC-9 jetliner in Denver earlier this month that claimed 28 lives.
Ned Walker, a Continental Airlines spokesman, then took the podium to characterize the charges as “old, stale and false.”
FAA spokeswoman Barbara Abels described Continental’s operations as safe.
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