9/11 airline supervisor pleads guilty in child sex case
PITTSBURGH -- A former American Airlines operations manager who learned of the first Sept. 11, 2001 hijacking before the jet struck the World Trade Center has pleaded guilty to a federal interstate child-sex charge in Pittsburgh.
Ray Howland, 55, of Arlington, Texas, entered the guilty plea Wednesday afternoon.
Howland was arrested near Pittsburgh International Airport last June by an undercover state attorney general's agent who posed as a woman with a 10-year-old daughter. Howland used an iPad and cellphone to send explicit messages after posting online that he was "looking for a family or a couple of girls" for sex while in town on business, prosecutors said.
The plea deal includes an agreed-upon 10-year prison sentence. That's the mandatory minimum sentence for the charge of attempted coercion and enticement of a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity, which carries up to life in prison.
A judge must still approve the sentence.
"A lot of times in these cases you see double that amount," defense attorney Frank Walker II said of the 10-year sentence. "It's hard to say someone can be satisfied, but they will be accepting of a 10-year sentence. When they're facing 19, 20 years, it seems like a reasonable resolution."
"He and his wife have undergone counseling. He's undergone counseling," Walker said. "He's looking forward to paying his debt to society and putting this behind him."
State authorities had filed other charges against Howland, including attempted child rape, but they were withdrawn after federal authorities took over the case.
Howland, who also has two grown children, received some of the first panicked calls from employees at Logan International Airport in Boston reporting the hijacking of American Airlines Flight 11 on Sept. 11, 2001. The plane was the first of two that crashed into New York's World Trade Center towers.
Howland was a supervisor at American's system operations control center. Transcripts show he told other American employees not to disclose the hijacking minutes before the Boeing 767 hit the World Trade Center.
"We don't want this getting out," Howland said, according to the transcripts. "We're aware of the situation. We're dealing with it right now. So let us deal with it."
American Airlines, based in Fort Worth, Texas, has said Howland is no longer an employee. He has remained free pending sentencing, but has been confined to a residence in Atlanta with an electronic ankle bracelet.