Airline employees who stole luggage in aftermath of Asiana crash in San Francisco last year sentenced to nine and six months prison

A husband and his wife, both United Airlines employees, were sentenced Tuesday to prison time for stealing luggage from passengers whose flights were diverted or cancelled in the aftermath of the Asiana Airlines crash at San Francisco International Airport last summer. Sean Sharif Crudup, 44, and Raychas Elizabeth Thomas, 32, both of Richmond, California, pleaded no contest to grand theft and possessing stolen property. They received sentences of nine months and six months, respectively, according to the Los Angeles Times.

They also received probation of three years and were ordered to pay $6,000 in restitutution, with most of that amount going to the high-end department store Nordstrom. Some of the passengers' whose luggage was stolen was headed from San Francisco to the Cayman. The luggage contained jewelry and clothing worth about $30,000.

'Ms. Thomas had taken a bunch of the clothing to Nordstrom to sell it back,' San Mateo County District Attorney Wagstaffe said at the time of the couple’s arrest last July. 'A search warrant was issued for their home in Richmond, and a large number of the items were found there.'

They were arrested at the San Francisco airport on July 25, 2013, as they were about to board a flight to Hawaii. Some of the items Crudup and Thomas stole from other people's luggage was found in their possession. A subsequent search of their home found even more stolen items, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Thomas will surrender to custody in December to start serving time, while Crudup will follow in December.

The Asiana crash on July 6, 2013 killed three Chinese students on board the flight from Seoul. More than 200 other people were injured. The accident wreaked havoc on the San Francisco airport for days, cancelling flights and diverting others.

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Firefighter Sues Over Being Blamed In SFO Asiana Crash Death

A San Francisco firefighter claimed in a lawsuit filed Friday that Fire Department officials falsely identified her as having driven the rig that fatally struck a teenage survivor of last year's Asiana Airlines crash. Elyse Duckett, 49, was made a "sacrificial lamb" so department leaders wouldn't have to answer further questions about the Fire Department's response to the crash July 6 at San Francisco International Airport, said the suit filed in San Francisco Superior Court.

Three passengers died, including 16-year-old Ye Meng Yuan of China. She survived the crash but was killed when she was run over by two rigs as she lay on the ground near the Boeing 777's left wing. 

"Elyse was a scapegoat so there wouldn't be a magnifying glass on all the other things that went wrong," including a breakdown in command procedures, radio communications and the triaging of victims, said her attorney, Eduardo Roy.

Duckett, who has been with the Fire Department for 24 years, was away from the airport shopping for groceries when the Asiana flight crashed on landing, according to the suit. Duckett raced back to the airport, climbed into a fire rig and headed out to the scene. By the time she got there, the suit says, Ye had already been killed by another fire rig and her body was obscured in flame-retardant foam. Duckett's rig then ran over the girl, the suit says.

The San Mateo County Coroner's Office determined that Ye was alive before being struck by the rigs, but an autopsy report did not say which rig killed her. Duckett's suit says fire officials blamed her for Ye's death, even though they knew that the other rig, driven by firefighter Jimmy Yee, had been the first to hit the girl. Fire officials singled out Duckett because as an African American lesbian and single mother, she does not fit into the "fraternal" Fire Department, Roy said.

"She doesn't travel in packs," Roy said. "There is only one African American lesbian. ... So what do you do? You pick on the weaker, smaller group."

Fire Department officials subjected Duckett to a "surprise interrogation" at which they tried to pin Ye's death on her and later leaked her name to the media, the suit says.

The suit asks that department leaders acknowledge that Duckett did nothing wrong and identify whoever leaked her name. Duckett is also seeking $300,000 in damages. Mindy Talmadge, a spokeswoman for the Fire Department, declined to comment on the lawsuit. But generally, Talmadge said, Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White is proud of "all of the first responders who responded to the Asiana incident and performed extremely well under the extraordinary circumstances."

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United Airlines to Launch Nonstop Service Between San Francisco and Tokyo's Haneda Airport

United Airlines, the U.S. carrier with the most extensive global reach, today announced it will add Tokyo's Haneda Airport to its route network, with daily nonstop service from San Francisco effective Oct. 26, 2014, subject to government approval.

Haneda Airport will be the tenth trans-Pacific destination that United serves nonstop from San Francisco, and the third newAsia-Pacific airport – also including Taipei and Chengdu – for United this year.

"We are excited about adding Haneda Airport to our global route network," said Jim Compton, United's vice chairman and chief revenue officer. "By providing nonstop service from our San Francisco hub to both Tokyo airports, we will maximize choice and convenience for customers traveling from across the Americas to Tokyo, and to points beyond on our joint-venture partner ANA."

Flight 875 will depart San Francisco International Airport daily at 6:35 p.m., arriving at Haneda Airport at 10:05 p.m. the following day (all times local). On the return, flight 876 will depart Haneda daily at 12:05 a.m., arriving in San Francisco at 5:15 p.m. the previous day, after crossing the International Date Line. Flying times will be approximately 11 hours, 30 minutes westbound and 9 hours, 10 minutes eastbound.

Effective Nov. 2, 2014, San Francisco arrival and departure times will be one hour earlier due to the end of daylight saving time. 

The flight schedules enable customers to use convenient public transportation between Haneda Airport and central Tokyo andYokohama.

Connecting Flights

United customers traveling on the new Haneda flights will be able to make one-stop connections at the San Francisco hub to and from 28 cities throughout North America and beyond. In addition, the new service will provide connections at Haneda on the extensive network of United's joint-venture partner ANA to other international destinations, including Bangkok andSingapore.

With the introduction of the San Francisco – Tokyo/Haneda service, United will operate once-daily service between San Francisco and Tokyo's Narita International Airport, rather than the twice-daily service currently offered. The airline also operates daily service to Tokyo/Narita from its hubs in Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, New York and Washington.

United in San Francisco

United is the largest carrier at San Francisco International Airport, offering nearly 300 daily flights to more than 90 destinations in the U.S. and around the world, more service than any other airline from the Bay Area. From its San Francisco hub, United also offers more nonstop trans-Pacific service to and from the United States than any other carrier hub. United currently operates nearly 30 daily nonstop flights from San Francisco to 21 international destinations and will add nonstop service fromSan Francisco to Chengdu, China, in June, pending government approval.

Onboard Products and Services

The Haneda service will be operated with Boeing 777 aircraft with 269 seats – eight in United Global First, 40 in United BusinessFirst and 221 in United Economy, including 104 United Economy Plus extra-legroom seats. Both Global First and BusinessFirst feature flat-bed seats, along with a wide range of premium-cabin services and amenities.  All seats on the 777 feature a personal on-demand entertainment system. 

About United

United Airlines and United Express operate an average of more than 5,200 flights a day to 369 airports across six continents. In 2013, United and United Express carried more passenger traffic than any other airline in the world and operated nearly two million flights carrying 139 million customers. United operates nearly 700 mainline aircraft and, in 2014, will take delivery of 35 new Boeing aircraft, including the B787-9 as the North American launch customer, and will welcome 27 new E175 aircraft to United Express. The airline is a founding member of Star Alliance, which provides service to 195 countries via 26 member airlines. More than 85,000 United employees reside in every U.S. state and in countries around the world. For more information, visit united.com, follow @United on Twitter or connect on Facebook. The common stock of United's parent, United Continental Holdings, Inc., is traded on the NYSE under the symbol UAL.

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Aer Lingus launches its new route to San Francisco

Aer Lingus (Dublin) yesterday (April 2) launched its inaugural flight to San Francisco. The flight, flight EI 147, was assigned to an Airbus A330-200 (EI-DUO) named St. Columba,

Aer Lingus will operate five flights per week from Dublin to San Francisco as part of its significant trans-Atlantic growth plan in 2014.

The 2014 growth plan includes:

· New routes from Dublin to San Francisco and Toronto (Pearson)

· Almost doubling of frequency on services from Shannon to Boston and New York (JFK)

· The addition of three Boeing 757 aircraft to the long haul fleet

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United Airlines beats out Hawaiian for available Tokyo Haneda slot pair

United Airlines has tentatively won US government approval to operate a daily flight between San Francisco International Airport (SFO) and Tokyo Haneda Airport (HND).

US airlines are allowed to operate four daily round-trip flights to/from Haneda, Tokyo’s downtown airport that began handling international flights in 2010. 

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