United Airlines stock falls after posting of 6-year-old story

Shares of United Airlines fell by more than 75 percent on Monday after the a six-year-old story posted on the South Florida Sun-Sentinel site found widespread distribution.

United issued a statement that said, “United Airlines today said reports that the company filed for bankruptcy are completely untrue and were caused by the irresponsible posting of a 6-year-old Chicago Tribune article by the Florida Sun Sentinel newspaper website with the date changed.

“The story was related to United’s 2002 bankruptcy filing, and United has demanded a retraction from the Sun Sentinel and is launching an investigation. United exited bankruptcy in February 2006.”

An unbylined story on the Tribune site stated, “Joe Schwerdt, deputy managing editor-interactive for the Sun-Sentinel, said internal tracking records show that no one at the paper had opened the original story file since 2003. The story would have been available via a search on the site, but no one outside the paper should have had access to the story file, Schwerdt said.

“The Sun-Sentinel story did not have any discernible impact on United shares until after 10:53 a.m., when it was posted to the Bloomberg financial news service. The story was posted to Bloomberg by a Miami, Fla. investment advisory firm, Income Securities Advisor.

“A reporter for Income Securities, which posts stories about distressed debt securities directly to Bloomberg, became aware of the story early Monday after searching for bankruptcy situations using the Google search engine. The Sun-Sentinel story was the first story in a list of Google results, said Richard Lehmann, president of Income Securities.”

Read the Tribune story here.