Trial will soon be underway for an American Airlines flight attendant accused of attacking fellow crew members and two US air marshals. Prosecutors on Tuesday reduced the charges against 67-year-old Joanne Snow ahead of her trial Friday in federal court. She had faced two felonies stemming from a round-trip flight between Charlotte and Frankfurt, Germany, last November. An affidavit said she attacked two U.S. marshals and slapped a fellow flight attendant before trying to flee passport control after the plane landed in Charlotte. After Snow's arrest, she was involuntarily committed to a hospital, then jailed. Prosecutors say in a document that Snow "knowingly and intentionally" assaulted a federal officer on the flight.<br/>
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Friday marked 31st anniversary of the 1985 crash of a Japan Airlines Boeing 747 on Mount Osutaka in Gunma Prefecture, with hundreds of relatives of the victims scheduled later in the day to visit the scene of the nation’s worst air disaster, which claimed 520 lives. With 524 passengers and crew members aboard, JAL Flight 123 bound for Osaka’s Itami airport from Tokyo’s Haneda crashed into the mountain on Aug. 12, 1985. There were only four survivors. A monument dedicated to the victims was later built on a steep slope so the relatives can visit the crash site to pay their respects to their deceased kin. But due to the fact that the relatives are aging, participants in recent years have numbers only around 300. Later in the day, JAL President Yoshiharu Ueki was scheduled to join the relatives and offer prayers.<br/>
A Chilean court accepted a petition from a business group Wednesday to examine the effects on free competition of agreements LATAM Airlines signed earlier this year with American Airlines Group and European airline group IAG. In the petition, the Chilean Association of Tourism Companies asked Chile's TDLC anti-monopoly court for an "absolute rejection" of the accord, saying "it will cause grave harm for competition, seriously affecting the tourism market, travel agencies, tourism operators and consumers." LATAM said the agreement conformed to anti-monopoly rules and would benefit consumers, expanding its network to more than 420 destinations in the United States, Canada and Europe. "This type of agreement has already been approved by diverse free competition authorities throughout the world, including the United States and Europe, who have recognized its benefits," LATAM said. In January, LATAM signed joint business agreements to deepen its ties with American Airlines and IAG's British Airways and Iberia, all members of the Oneworld Alliance. If approved by authorities, the agreements would help the airlines coordinate schedules and prices for flights, similar to the North Atlantic revenue-sharing agreement that already exists between IAG and American.<br/>