Transworld Airlines

An independent investor group bid to buy Trans World Airlines Inc. for substantially more cash than American Airlines parent AMR Corp. offered for the bankrupt carrier. St. Louis-based TWA, the No. 8 U.S. airline, said Jet Acquisitions Group offered $889 million, compared with the $500 million offer from American. Jet Acquisitions was previously described by a spokesman as a group of "aviation experts and major investors" but has kept the identities of its members secret.

An independent investor group bid to buy Trans World Airlines Inc. for substantially more cash than American Airlines parent AMR Corp. offered for the bankrupt carrier. St. Louis-based TWA, the No. 8 U.S. airline, said Jet Acquisitions Group offered $889 million, compared with the $500 million offer from American. Jet Acquisitions was previously described by a spokesman as a group of "aviation experts and major investors" but has kept the identities of its members secret.

American Airlines' pending acquisition of AirCal probably will require the merged airlines to forfeit at least two flights a day at Orange County's John Wayne Airport, making way for the entry of a new airline at the tightly controlled facility, county officials said Tuesday. Daniel J.

Despite the failure-ridden history of commuter airlines at John Wayne Airport, a group of Orange County investors plans to inaugurate a new shuttle service between Orange County and Los Angeles by mid-September. Carl Strombitski of Santa Ana, who is waging a court battle to prove his part in founding an air service between Maui and Honolulu, said Monday that in the meantime he has become president and chief executive officer of the new Newport Beach-based shuttle airline.

There was something different about the rookie firefighter who started up the stairwell toward the First Interstate Bank fire Wednesday night, laden with 100 pounds of hose, protective garb and breathing gear. Nobody noticed. Least of all her. "She has a function and she did it. She performed with the team," said Capt. John Buck of his newest firefighter, April Jones. "She was right there on the nozzle. . . . She didn't back away from the heat or the intensity or anything. She did well."

In the annals of titanic competitions between corporations, few during this century have been waged with the intensity or longevity as the one between Boeing Co. and Douglas Aircraft Co. for leadership of the commercial aircraft industry. It pitted William Boeing against Donald Douglas, both of whom caught the fever for aviation early in the century and who would become the two driving forces in the production of ever more advanced aircraft. Starting in 1920s, Boeing Co.

What does Carl Icahn really want? Is the man who was once among Wall Street's most feared corporate raiders--and who now finds his old tactics unfashionable--really just interested in raising the long-depressed price of his USX Corp. stock? In other words, has he joined the kinder, gentler 1990s? Or is his proxy fight against USX an effort to put the nation's largest steelmaker--also one of America's biggest energy concerns--into play?

During the past 15 months, the Alaska Airlines facility where heavy maintenance was performed on all of the airline's MD-80s has been targeted by two federal investigations into accusations that mechanics falsified safety inspection records and allowed two airplanes to fly in "unairworthy" condition. The facility, at Oakland International Airport, has also been shaken by labor turmoil that climaxed with the ouster of the local mechanics union president after he became a federal whistle-blower.

Nowadays, a company must think more than twice before firing an employee for a reason such as poor performance. Although the U.S. Supreme Court last year sharply limited the amount of damages an employee can claim for being fired without good cause, lawyers and management consultants say the issue is still one that companies large and small need to be concerned about. Newport Beach lawyer Roger H.