Google News blunder triggers airline sell off

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 10 Sep 2008 at 11:08

United Airlines share price tumbled after Google News recycled a six-year-old story about it going bankrupt.

The story first appeared in the Chicago Tribune in 2002 after United Airlines filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The airline emerged from bankruptcy in 2006 and has spent the intervening years putting its business back together.

However, the story reappeared on Google News on Sunday evening, with the search giant claiming it was republished on the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, a Chicago Tribune sister paper, and the newspaper claiming Google must have raided its archive.

Whatever the cause, the story lacked a date stamp and so was automatically tagged with Sunday's date by Google. From there it was picked up by a Florida investment firm, Income Securities Advisors, which reported the story to the Bloomberg financial information service.

Within hours thousands of investments managers were staring at the headline "United Airlines files for Ch. 11 to cut costs" triggering a massive sell off of stock that knocked 75% of the company's price by the close of play, before partially recovering after the confusion was cleared up.