The lawsuit began like so many others: A man named Roberto Mata sued the airline Avianca, saying he was injured when a metal serving cart struck his knee during a flight to Kennedy International Airport in New York. When Avianca asked a Manhattan federal judge to toss out the case, Mata’s lawyers vehemently objected, submitting a 10-page brief that cited more than half a dozen relevant court decisions. There was Martinez v. Delta Air Lines, Zicherman v. Korean Air Lines and, of course, Varghese v. China Southern Airlines, with its learned discussion of federal law and “the tolling effect of the automatic stay on a statute of limitations.” There was just one hitch: No one — not the airline’s lawyers, not even the judge himself — could find the decisions or the quotations cited and summarized in the brief. That was because ChatGPT had invented everything. The lawyer who created the brief, Steven A. Schwartz of the firm Levidow, Levidow & Oberman, threw himself on the mercy of the court on Thursday, saying in an affidavit that he had used the artificial intelligence program to do his legal research — “a source that has revealed itself to be unreliable.” Schwartz, who has practiced law in New York for three decades, told Judge P. Kevin Castel that he had no intent to deceive the court or the airline. Schwartz said that he had never used ChatGPT, and “therefore was unaware of the possibility that its content could be false.” He had, he told Judge Castel, even asked the program to verify that the cases were real. It had said yes. Schwartz said he “greatly regrets” relying on ChatGPT “and will never do so in the future without absolute verification of its authenticity.” Judge Castel said in an order that he had been presented with “an unprecedented circumstance,” a legal submission replete with “bogus judicial decisions, with bogus quotes and bogus internal citations.” He ordered a hearing for June 8 to discuss potential sanctions. As artificial intelligence sweeps the online world, it has conjured dystopian visions of computers replacing not only human interaction, but also human labor. The fear has been especially intense for knowledge workers, many of whom worry that their daily activities may not be as rarefied as the world thinks — but for which the world pays billable hours.<br/>
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Lufthansa is about to embark on a tough journey to pull off a quick turnaround of Alitalia’s successor ITA Airways and overcome two decades of constant losses. Lufthansa on Thursday agreed to buy a minority stake in ITA, and its executives think they can succeed where other managers failed: wringing a profit from the airline that long flew the flag of Italy, Europe’s third-largest aviation market. Speaking to reporters on Friday, Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr said ITA could be made profitable within two years. The German airline group plans to use its global marketing muscle, loyalty schemes and network of connecting flights to boost ITA’s revenue. “ITA is not the old Alitalia,” Spohr said. “We will make this operation a success.” Alitalia’s track record has historically been disastrous. The company hasn’t posted an annual profit in 20 years, it’s gone bankrupt twice since 2008, and turned into a huge burden for Etihad Airways after the deep-pocketed carrier from Abu Dhabi bought a stake but failed to turn the business around. The brand officially ceased operations in late 2021, when it was reborn as ITA Airways. Alitalia’s losses totaled about E12.4b since the early 2000s, when competition in the European aviation market started to increase, according to calculations by aviation expert Andrea Giuricin of the University of Milano Bicocca. ITA Airways losses are included in calculations. The new carrier lost E486m in 2022, according to a statement. For Lufthansa, the foray represents a gamble on an Italian market that’s more competitive than the German carrier is accustomed to, following the rapid expansion of low-cost operators. During the annual general meeting in May, Lufthansa investors signaled unease about the planned takeover, warning management that the Italian government might wish to interfere with the running of the company. To hedge its risk, Lufthansa plans to buy ITA in several steps, and Italy’s government will contribute a dowry of about E250m. ITA will add to a group of national carriers already under the Lufthansa umbrella, including Swiss and Austrian Airlines. <br/>
Lufthansa hopes to develop Rome Fiumicino as a southern hub for the group and will focus on long-haul flights from the Italian airport to Northern and Latin America, group slides said on Friday. Lufthansa will buy a 41% stake in ITA Airways, the successor of former flagship carrier Alitalia, through a E325m capital increase and is aiming to take full control of the airline in the future. "We will also build on ITA's established strength on routes to Asia, Northern Africa and the Middle East," Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr told analysts. Shares in Lufthansa were down 0.2% on Friday, a day after the airline and the Italian Treasury announced the ITA deal. A report from TRA consulting firm says some 43m people travelled through Rome Fiumicino in 2019, before the COVID-19 outbreak, and the airport has potential to become an even stronger hub for the Mediterranean area. TRA analyst Andrea Giuricin said poor intercontinental connections are a persistent issue for Italian airports, as around 5.6m travellers per year stop over at other European hubs before reaching their final destinations. His report said this is due to the weakness of the national airline, and the integration of ITA into the Lufthansa group might help Fiumicino become an hub for travellers heading to the Americas. The German carrier would also look to expand tourism in Milan Linate city airport, company slides showed. "Lufthansa is facing a hard challenge with ITA, but it is proposing reasonable plans to win it," Giuricin told Reuters, adding ITA remains strong in Fiumicino and Linate but lost much of its business in the rest of Italian airports.<br/>
Lufthansa Group CE Carsten Spohr argues the relatively weak market share of ITA Airways means there is a case for European regulators to deliver an early approval for its planned acquisition of a stake in the Italian carrier. The Star Alliance carrier group has struck a deal to initially acquire 41% of ITA – with options to take full control at a later date – and is hoping to secure European Commission approval by the year end. Low-cost carriers had already eaten into the market share of ITA Airways’ struggling predecessor Alitalia, a factor which had heaped further pressure on Italy’s former flag carrier. ITA Airways, the start-up which took over as flag carrier in October 2021, is also around one-third smaller than its predecessor. It means ITA Airways has a relatively small market share compared to Ryanair, which is the biggest operator on Italian routes. Cirium schedules data for May shows Ryanair has a 33% share of seat capacity on Italian routes versus the 9% of ITA Airways – though the gap is 23% versus 9% when measured in ASKs, reflecting ITA’s long-haul network. "I hope very much that the European Commission sees that by a strengthened ITA our friend finally has competition in Italy,” Spohr said during an analysts and media call about the ITA acquisition today. "We should not be naive. There will be a very detailed legal look at it [by the Commission],” he adds. “With such a low market share of ITA, which is the probably lowest of all national carriers in Europe, and such a strong market share of the strongest low-cost airline in Europe, I’m sure they will appreciate now there is fair competition again which the consumers to and from Italy will take advantage of.”<br/>
An EgyptAir jetliner blew out a tire but made a safe landing at its destination early Sunday in Saudi Arabia, Egypt’s national carrier said. No causalities were reported. Flight MS643 took off from Cairo international airport early Sunday and one of its tires burst during landing at King Abdulaziz International Airport in the Saudi coastal city of Jeddah, EgyptAir said. The Boeing 738 made a safe landing on the runway and all passengers have disembarked the airplane with no injuries reported, the statement said. The airline didn’t elaborate on what caused the problem, and said an examination and maintenance of the plane were underway.<br/>
The unexpected opening of an emergency exit door on an Asiana Airlines plane making its landing on Friday in Daegu, South Korea, left passengers shaken, and nine of them were hospitalized after they experienced difficulty breathing. The police arrested a man in his 30s on suspicion of forcing open the door. The suspect, who could face charges of violating aviation security laws, did not reveal a motive, said Kim Hyeong-su, an officer in the criminal affairs division of the Daegu Dongbu Police Station. The plane, which left Jeju Island at 11:58 a.m., was at an altitude of 700 feet and minutes from landing at 12:38 p.m., when a man seated in the emergency exit row next to the door forced it open, a spokesman for the airline said. According to FlightAware, the plane was traveling about 170 miles an hour at that point in the flight. Normally when a plane is mid-flight, the difference in air pressure inside and outside the cabin prevents the doors from opening. But the plane was so close to the ground that the difference was negligible, allowing the door to be unlatched, said the airline spokesman, Baek Hyunwoo. The crew members could not stop the man because the nearest flight attendant was seated too far away to reach him in time, and all on board — crew and passengers — must wear safety belts during landing, he added. The plane landed safely, Baek said, and there were no major injuries among the 194 passengers and six crew members. But 12 people — all but one of them between the ages of 11 and 16 — had hyperventilated, a spokesman for the Daegu Fire and Safety Department said. Nine of those were taken to nearby hospitals.<br/>
Asiana Airlines, Korea's second-biggest carrier, said Sunday it has stopped selling certain emergency seats of A321-200 passenger jets following a recent incident in which a passenger opened a door of the same aircraft model just before landing. Starting Sunday, Asiana Airlines halted the sale of the 26A seat of 11 A321-200s, which can carry 174 passengers, and that of the 31A seat of three A321-200s, which can accommodate 195 passengers, the company said in a statement. The seats right beside the emergency doors in A321-200s will be excluded for reservation even if all seats on the planes are fully booked, the statement said, without providing any specific timeframe for the suspension. The incident took place on an A321-200 aircraft heading to the city of Daegu, 237 kilometers southeast of Seoul, from the southern Island of Jeju on Friday. A man sitting in the emergency seat row opened the door when the 195-seat A321-200 aircraft was about 213 meters from the ground right before landing at Daegu International Airport. None of the 194 people aboard the plane fell out or were hurt in Friday's incident, but 12 panicked passengers showed symptoms of breathing difficulty and some of them were taken to a hospital. Police sought an arrest warrant for Lee for an alleged violation of the aviation security law, citing the seriousness of his case and the risk of flight. Under the act, a passenger who operates the doors, emergency exits or devices of an airplane could face a prison term of up to 10 years. During questioning, the man said he had been under a lot of stress after losing his job recently and that he opened the door because he wanted to get off quickly after feeling suffocated, according to police officials.<br/>
Pilots and cabin crew on Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Scoot flights will no longer be required to wear masks from June 1, but some flight attendants expressed concern. An internal memo sent out by the two airlines stated that for SIA Group to maintain a “unified and consistent approach”, flight attendants “should not wear masks” while in uniform. However, if a flight is heading to or departing from a destination where masks are mandatory, flight attendants must wear masks in accordance with local government regulations. Screenshots of the memo were sent to Chinese daily Lianhe Zaobao on Thursday. A Scoot crew member, who did not want to be named, told the newspaper in an e-mail interview that a colleague had asked the company about the memo and came to the conclusion that from June, it is “mandatory” for SIA and Scoot crew members to remove their masks when in uniform. The crew member added that when another colleague asked the company whether cabin crew are allowed to wear masks when cleaning the toilets, its answer was that “one should not wear mask when in uniform”. An SIA crew member, who also did not want to be named, said he is not worried and has no objection to the new rule. But some of his colleagues have expressed concern and hope they can wear a mask if they choose to, he said. Some crew members who spoke to The Straits Times under condition of anonymity also have health and safety concerns and prefer to remain masked while on board. “There will always be passengers who travel very frequently to countries that may not be as effective as Singapore in handling Covid-19, hence there is still a higher-than-average chance that we may catch Covid-19 and pass it on to someone with lower immunity,” said an SIA flight attendant in her mid-40s.<br/>