In June 2005, two airline companies warned Congress that they could go bankrupt if they are not allowed to modify their pension payment plans. As the nation's planes take to the air this fall, some of the employees keeping them aloft face uncertain futures. Many of their companies' pension plans are in jeopardy. One of those companies, United Airlines, terminated its pension plans after a bankruptcy judge gave it the green light in May. Under funded by $9.8 billion, United Airlines default is the largest in U.S. history. Now, the carrier's retirees get their benefit checks from the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, or PBGC, a federal body now running in the red by some $23 billion.
The Senate Finance Committee brought federal pension insurers, airline industry executives and employee representatives to Washington for a hearing designed to help prevent the next pension collapse. The chairman, Sen. Charles Grassley from Iowa, was critical of loopholes in the law that allowed......
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