Latest news with #EasternAirlines
Forbes
13-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Looking Back At Trump's Years-Long Obsession With Oversized Airplanes
Donald Trump has plane envy. 'You look at some of the Arab countries, and the planes they have parked alongside the United States of America's plane—it's like from a different planet,' he marveled Monday. To compensate, Trump is now considering accepting a plane from Qatar, an energy-rich monarchy that has long sought to curry favor with the U.S. president. 'A very nice gesture,' Trump said. Trump's Boeing 757 includes leathers from Italy, fabrics from France, and embroidered Trump family crests on its headrests. Andrew Milligan/Also a gesture that plays directly to the ego of a billionaire who has long preferred oversized planes, personalizing airliners too big to land in some airports over the more nimble jets that most executives prefer. Trump's planes, impractical as they may be, definitely make a statement. 'From an ego standpoint, hey, you land with an aircraft like that,' says aviation pro George Reenstra, 'you can interpret that the way you want.' Alan Marcus, a communications consultant who used to ride on Trump's old Boeing 727, interprets it like this: 'It's an extension of who's got the biggest penis.' Trump's plane features several televisions, one of which measures 57 inches. Andrew Milligan/In the late 1980s, when Donald Trump was making all sorts of ego-fueled purchases, like the Plaza Hotel and a professional football team, he bought part of struggling Eastern Airlines, then converted it into Trump Shuttle, a service connecting New York, Boston and Washington, D.C. The business flopped, but Trump snapped up one of its Boeing 727s and converted it into his personal jet. Trump's plane fit the era–velvety red chairs, rich wooden tables, thickly framed art. 'It always looked good,' says Marcus. 'But, for example, it didn't have noise arresters on it, so we couldn't land at LaGuardia after, I think it was 11 o'clock at night. And I remember the first time I was on the plane, I said, 'What else is missing?'' Trump, whose representatives did not respond to a request for comment, decided to upgrade eventually. In 2008, he approached broker Ben Sirimanne, interested in a Boeing 767. Sirimanne pointed out that it would be hard to land in some places. 'So then he said, 'All right, find me a 757,'' says Sirimanne, referring to a slightly smaller model that was still too big to land everywhere. The broker connected Trump with a friend, who lined up the plane of Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen, a 1991 Boeing 757. Some jet owners prefer brushed nickel finishes. "Obviously with him, he wanted gold," says Eric Roth, who refurbished the interior of Trump's plane. Andrew Milligan/Before purchasing the plane, Trump contacted another aircraft professional, Eric Roth, who specializes in tricking out interiors of private planes, sending him to take a look and bring back photos. Trump went ahead with the deal and got to work on the redesign, ultimately spending roughly $37 million on the plane. 'As a developer, you're going to have plenty of architects and designers on staff or certainly at your disposal,' says Roth. 'And in this case, it wasn't that at all. It was just him and myself.' Drawing inspiration from Trump's penthouse, Roth came up a design featuring marble, creams and an abundance of gold. Even the seat buckles received a 24-carat coating. Trump wanted a big TV, with a great sound system, to watch movies. He liked the idea of his family crest stitched into the headrests. And he had an unusual dining request. 'An area in the galley for Oreos,' Roth laughs. 'I said to him, 'Mr. Trump, really?' He goes, 'I love Oreos.'' Trump still owns the plane. He used Air Force One during his first term, then upgraded the 757 while out of office, adding, among other flourishes, a prominent American flag to its tail. Trump Force One, as the president's fans sometimes refer to it, became a moneymaker during the 2024 presidential race, with Trump's campaign funneling more than $5 million of donor money into his business as he jetted around the country. Trump has long included helicopters as part of his aerial fleet, for years buzzing between Manhattan and Atlantic City via in Qatar, the country's leaders have been seeking to offload two of their three Boeing 747s, each of which they purchased for $200 million and gave a VIP makeover for over $200 million more, according to Sirimanne, whom the petromonarchy contracted to help sell the jets. All that money left the planes in great shape, with just the sort of interiors that might pique the interest of Donald Trump—lots of creams, some wood, maybe not quite enough gold. In 2018, Qatar gave one of the planes—which sport two full bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms, three galleys, an office and multiple lounges—to Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president. 'The second airplane was just stagnating, just waiting to be sold,' says Sirimanne. The Qataris wanted $275 million for it, he says. 'I brought them two offers around $200 million each, and they turned down both.' Then, they came up with a different, perhaps more valuable, plan. 'They just decided,' says Sirimanne, 'it's better to gift it to Trump than to just do maintenance on it.' Trump speaks to Alan Marcus, a communications consultant, aboard his old Boeing 727. Courtesy of Alan Marcus
Reuters
28-03-2025
- Business
- Reuters
China Eastern Airlines 2024 net loss 4.2 billion yuan
BEIJING, March 28 (Reuters) - China's state-owned Eastern Airlines ( opens new tab said on Friday its net loss shrank to 4.2 billion yuan ($578 million) in 2024 from a 8.2-billion-yuan loss the previous year. The Shanghai-headquartered carrier said that last year the Chinese civil aviation industry still faced significant operational pressures due to factors such as fluctuating oil prices and exchange rate volatility. ($1 = 7.2650 Chinese yuan renminbi)
Yahoo
21-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Maribeth Campana, Boardman, Ohio
BOARDMAN, Ohio (MyValleyTributes) – Maribeth Campana, 79, entered the gates of Heaven on Tuesday, February 18, 2025. Maribeth was born October 6, 1945, in Youngstown, the daughter of William and Helen Daubenspeck Eckert. Find obituaries from your high school She was a graduate of Boardman High School. She worked as a flight attendant for Eastern Airlines and then went on to earn a degree in nursing. She retired as a registered nurse from Forum Health after 27 years. In her spare time, Maribeth enjoyed attending NASCAR races, vacationing at the beach, especially Key West, Florida and going out to dinner. She made a lasting impression on people she met with her warmth, generosity and sense of humor. Maribeth will always be remembered lovingly by her husband, Robert, whom she married on August 30, 1984; daughter, Renee Spinred; son, Kenneth Johnson; grandson, Sean Johnson; brother, William Eckert; sister-in-law, Lori Campana and brother-in-law, Randall Campana Besides her parents, she was preceded in death by son-in-law, Ruben Spinred; sisters-in-law, Suzanne Eckert, Nora Campana and Toni Campana and brother-in-law, Ronald Campana. The family will receive relatives and friends from 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, February 25, 2025, at the Rossi Brothers and Lellio Funeral Home, 4442 South Avenue in Boardman, followed by a 1:00 p.m. service. In lieu of flowers, the family respectfully requests donations be made in Maribeth's name to the American Cancer Society, P.O. Box 6704, Hagerstown, MD 21741. Family and friends are encouraged to offer prayers for the family and support via phone call, text, email or may visit the Book of Memories at To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Maribeth Campana, please visit our Heartfelt Sympathies Store. A television tribute will air Sunday, February 23 at the following approximate times: 6:27 p.m. on WYTV and 6:58 p.m. on MyYTV. Video will be posted here the day of airing. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
CBS News
31-01-2025
- General
- CBS News
South Florida plane crash survivor says D.C. midair collision, her tragedy have chilling similarities
MIAMI — The tragic midair collision over the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday night, is hitting close to home for one South Florida woman who survived a deadly plane crash over the Everglades. When American Eagle Airlines Flight 5342 collided midair with a Black Hawk helicopter just moments from landing at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Beverly Raposa relived her own crash nightmare. "My heart! I just cried. I was like, you know, you can almost probably see Washington right over there, and you're so close, Oh that breaks my heart," she said. Raposa was a flight attendant on Eastern Airlines Flight 401 when it crashed into the Florida Everglades less than 20 miles from Miami International Airport in 1972. She's one of 75 people who survived. "I'm thinking to myself, 'They were so close. They were on the final approach of Reagan, just like us,'" she said. "We were on approach into Miami, "Yay, we're going to get home a long day.' And you know, for them, I mean, and us, it happened." When Raposa saw the fireball in the sky above the Potomac, she couldn't help but remember the explosion on her flight. "He was making the turn to the left, and the left wing tip hit! Absolutely no warning. And the sound of that left-wing tip hitting the ground and the fireball, I don't think I'll forget it to my dying day," she said. One thing Raposa is grateful for is that no one knew what was about to happen before the crash. She hopes the souls aboard Flight 5342 had that same "blessing," as she calls it. "The blessing of Flight 401, was that there was no warning," she said. "There was no warning. No one was afraid." A picture of Beverly and her fellow flight attendants was snapped on the day of the crash. Two of her coworkers did not survive. She takes a little comfort in knowing that eventually some good will come of this. "So like with my passengers and my fellow crew members who didn't make it on 401, I say their lives were not lost in vain, you know, safety measures will come about that will make flying much safer for everyone," she said.
Yahoo
30-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
DC crash ‘almost identical' to 1949 collision: Aviation expert
(NewsNation) — The collision between an American Airlines regional jet and a military helicopter over the Potomac River shares striking similarities to a 1949 crash in the same airspace, an aviation attorney tells NewsNation. 'There was a prior accident at Washington National (Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport) 75 years ago almost identical to what happened last night,' said Edward Booth. 'It was Eastern Airlines, 537, Nov. 1 of 1949.' In that crash, an Eastern Air Lines-operated Douglas DC-4 aircraft collided with a military fighting plane over the Potomac River, killing 55 people. What we know about the DC plane crash victims 'It was the worst airline disaster in the world up until that point in time,' said Booth. While President Donald Trump promised a swift investigation into Wednesday night's crash, Booth said an investigation will likely take 'probably a year-and-a-half to two years. 'The probable cause determination by the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) may come out within a year because I have every reason to believe this will be given top priority.' Flights resumed at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport shortly after 11 a.m. Thursday. But many flights had been canceled, and airport information boards were covered in red cancellation messages. Other flights were delayed until late morning or afternoon. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
