AirTran Says Petruna Was Not On The Flight

This is probably not a surprise to many of us. Petruna's story sounded overly heroic and quasi-macho from the beginning, didn't it?

AirTran now says Petruna could not have been on flight 297. Was Robinson lying too? Why did several passengers and an entire flight crew refuse to fly then? Someone is not telling the whole story.

AirTran: Petruna wasn't on flight : The Airline Zone

According to all available records, Mr. Petruna's trip originated from Akron-Caton, Ohio (CAK) on AirTran flight 205. This flight arrived at the gate in Atlanta at 5:06 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. From the Airline Zone: After conducting additional research into this situation, we have verified, according to flight manifests (legally binding documents) that the individual that allegedly created a first-hand account of events on-board AirTran Airways flight 297, a Theodore Petruna, was never actually on-board the flight. According to all available records, Mr. Petruna's trip originated from Akron-Ca[n]ton, Ohio (CAK) on AirTran flight 205. This flight arrived at the gate in Atlanta at 5:06 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Flight 297, the flight which Mr. Patruna [sic] allegedly wrote a first-hand account of, originally pushed back from its gate in Atlanta at 4:40 p.m. EST, a full 26 minutes before flight 205 arrived at the gate in Atlanta making this flight connection impossible. While Mr. Patruna was originally scheduled to begin his journey on AirTran flight 202 from CAK and connect to flight 297 in Atlanta he did not make that original flight.

All this being said, there's a lot of smoke here. So, is there a fire? It would seem there is at least a little fire.