Disaster flights sink American Airlines' reputation

NEW YORK (AFP) - Two widely publicised "flights from hell" have sapped American Airlines' already bad reputation as it struggles with bankruptcy and battles its pilots union in contract talks.

On Monday, a flight on the Boston-Miami route had to make an emergency landing in New York after a block of seats wrenched loose inside the plane.

That followed a weekend account in The New York Times by a passenger who suffered an incident-marred, service-deprived, 30-hour nightmare trip from Paris to New York.

Popular satirist Gary Shteyngart described a journey that started with a delay in Paris, stopped because of new problems in London, where passengers had to find their own way around the airport and ultimately spend the night.