Ex-American Airlines exec with 9/11 tie to plead in sex case
PITTSBURGH (AP) – A former American Airlines operations manager who learned of the first Sept. 11 hijacking before the jet struck the World Trade Center is set to plead guilty to a federal interstate child-sex charge in Pittsburgh.
Frank Walker, the attorney for 55-year-old Ray Howland, confirmed his client will plead guilty 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, of Arlington, Texas, used an iPad and a 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,
Walker says the plea deal includes an agreed-upon 10-year prison sentence. He says Howland has undergone counseling and has his family’s support.