It just seems like a bad time for any firm with the word "British" in its title. We know all too well the various setbacks experienced by the oil giant once known as British Petroleum; now British Airways has drawn much unwelcome attention to itself with a photo touting its new mobile-boarding pass system as it appears to expedite the air travel of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, the world's most wanted man.





The photo appeared in the LHR News, the company's internal staff magazine covering London's Heathrow Airport. The image accompanied an article spelling out the benefits of the mobile-boarding setup, which permits users of mobile digital devices to print out their boarding passes on the fly. The boarding pass reads "Bin Laden/Osama" and appears in the graphic panel of a user's iPhone. (AT&T reception in remote Pakistani caves is apparently better than anyone might have guessed.)

What's more, the image features a frequent-flier number for passenger bin Laden — so much for all those airport terrorist watch lists — and has him flying first class on Oct. 26, 2010. As the travel site Gadling.com mused, "sadly, knowing the brilliant minds behind the anti-terror organizations, the terror level will be raised to 'red hot' on October 26, 2010, while airport police all over the world try to figure out which airport the most wanted terrorist in the world will be flying to."

So how did this happen? The short answer is that no one knows — or at least, no one's telling if they do. A British Airways spokeswoman told ABC News reporter Scott Mayerowitz that "a mistake has been made in this internal publication and we are working to find out how this occurred." And in response to a follow-up call from Yahoo! News, another spokeswoman for the airline remained firmly on message, saying, "We're still working to find out how this occurred at this time."

The gaffe could be the result of a tasteless prank that got out of hand — but current speculation is running toward the theory that it's the handiwork of a disgruntled employee. British Airways is currently locked in a labor dispute with the union representing its cabin-crew workers, and the strike has grounded flights for thousands of travelers in one of the busiest travel times of the year. At issue in the labor fight is a proposed cut in the base salaries for new flight attendants. The company estimates that it has lost more than $150 million in revenue during the dispute.

Between the union woes and the Osama PR setback, British Airways executives must be fondly reminiscing about last summer, when the major controversy was the airline's plan to sell ad space on its online boarding passes.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20100602/ts_ynews/ynews_ts2359

What do you wanna bet that people start changing their reservations?

Photoshop.

Actually theres a big article about it. An actual pass\ticket was printed up throught the Airlines. They think it was done by a disgruntled employee.

Betcha it makes 'em long for the 'good old days' when all they had to worry about was the occasional Comet crashing ...

A hoax by someone. But I also see how the major media must drop something about the "terror" every week on the front page to keep people psychologically terrorized.

So, there really AREN'T people out there who have a Seventh-century mentality and want to kill our infidel assses because we won't display proper 'dhimmitude' or believe the rantings of an epileptic psychotic ... ? Damn. I feel so much safer now ...

action ---> reaction.

Blowback. Maybe they would stop if others would stop exploiting them. I don't remember the Middle East being the enemy of USA since the existance of USA. Something must have triggered it or no? Or maybe one day out of the blue they just got up on the wrong side of the bed and figured it's time to hate USA.

kind of hard since he's dead

Here's a hint ... "Barbary Pirates" ... google it - then use that as a starting point ... it's called 'research' ...

what flavor kool aid do you drink? muslims have been present in america since it's inception. why did none of them start a ""jihad" which DOES NOT mean holy war like FOX claims. If Islam was so evil, why only after 9 11 have books staking this claim been published? i could find more acts of evil commited by the vatican. this all started with the west meddling and trying to subjugate the middle east not by some imaginary passage in a book.

Kinda hard making CURRENT audio tapes when your dead, just sayin'

everyone but the US have validated that those are fake. have you even seen the last video? how does he miracuously have a full black beard? in fact how does anyone with his condition live as long with no advanced health care. i have more legit sources than the american media. seriously wake up

Evidence of atrocities committed in the name of Jihad.
Warning! Not for the weak.

http://www.travelersdigest.com/video-page.htm

The barbary pirates attacked American ships and kidnapped sailors. This a whole different thing than various Arabs defending themselves from the American Military/Industrial complex.

That's one thing I can agree with you on.

Umm several intelligence agencies from various countries and top counter terrorism officials have verified the audio tapes.

LOL...audio tapes. You can edit audio. It's clear america doesn't want anyone to know he's dead because the campaign in the ME would be a farse. He had failing kidneys, i've never seen anyone live more than five years on dialysis...but maybe OBL is superhuman.