An unidentified man was forcibly removed from a United Airlines at JFK before it took off last night because he wouldn’t sit down and stop praying. A San Francisco author named Ori Brafman, who was on the flight, told WNBC the Orthodox Jewish man ignored instructions from flight attendants to remain in his seat. During the minutes before take off, he walked to the back of the plane to pray, and when he continued to......

While it may be beautiful now, yesterday's weather was awful enough to cause some holiday travel headaches for those flying out of area airports. Winds were gusting up to 47 MPH, and travelers arriving at LaGuardia had two hour delays, which wasn't bad considering arrivals at Kennedy and Newark had delays of four to four-and-a-half hours. A non-weather incident, though, caused a JetBlue flight from San Francisco to New York to be diverted to Denver......

What is Rudy Giuliani getting for the new year? It looks like he's in for some campaign tactics from families representing firefighters that died on 9/11 that The Post is calling "Swift Boat" like. James Riches, a deputy fire chief who's son James Jr., a firefighter who died at Ground Zero, is organizing the campaign against the former mayor. Riches told The Post that things should be "up and running" for January 1st and......

Just the kind of thing needed for everyone to continue questioning in the current air traffic control situation at area airports. Two planes almost collided on Sunday at JFK Airport. Senator Charles Schumer said that an air traffic controller said, "That was the closest I have ever seen two airplanes get together." According to the NY Times (also, see image at right), a "37-seat commuter jet" almost collided with a "Boeing 747 cargo jet on......

Another reassuring tale of airport security. At JFK Airport yesterday, an airport security screener was able to board a plane - without a ticket. Apparently the man wanted to go the United Arab Emirates to see off his parents, so somehow he managed to board an Etihad Airways flights without a ticket or boarding pass. And, according to the AP, "when the plane's doors shut, [he] told a flight attendant what he had done." We......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a scaffolding collapse on 5th Ave. and 115th St. in Manhattan, a stabbing on Franklin Ave. in Queens, and a homicide at 83rd St. and 4th Ave. in Brooklyn. The new Kaleidoscope Light Show is now on display at Grand Central Terminal's main hall. The Toshiba company returns to Times Square after being absent for several decades. The company signed a 10-year lease to capture the top sign spot......

The artist Do Ho Suh is known for creating architectural installations made of translucent fabric. His latest work to be shown in New York is "Reflection," a suspended nylon replica of a gate from his childhood home in Korea. On view since last Wednesday, this is the inaugural installation at 201 Chrystie Street, the new downtown location of the Lehmann Maupin Gallery. "Reflection" continues Suh's exploration of ephemeral space and memory. "The space I'm interested......

Being heir to $12 million can be a real dog. Especially if you're Trouble Helmsley, the cherished Maltese owned by the late real estate developer Leona Helmsley. "Queen of Mean" Helmsley shocked people from the grave by leaving $12 million to the pooch, which was more than what her grandchildren (combined) inherited. Helmsley's friend John Codey, who oversees Helmsley's trust, reveals that there have been many death threats: "We received any number of threats to......

The Thanksgiving Day and Thanksgiving Day Eve have emerged as some of the busiest travel days of the year. While the media shows shots of crowded airports and train stations on the Wednesdays before Thanksgiving (like today), the Bureau of Transportation Statistics says that when personal vehicle travel is included into calculations, "Thanksgiving Day is actually a heavier long-distance travel day [to and from a destination more than 50 or more miles away] than......

NYC & Co better update their marketing materials, because New York City has a new name...The Big Onion. At least that's what Stephon Marbury is calling New York these days. While professing his love of yesterday's NY Post cover (we can't argue with him), Marbury e-mailed The Post, "I must say the front page of The Post has to be the funniest thing I have ever seen in a long time. I'm sitting on......

Yesterday, people gathered for the sixth anniversary of the fatal American Airlines Flight 587 crash in Belle Harbor, Queens. It was the second deadlist aviation crash in U.S. history, with 265 victims. Mayor Bloomberg led the ceremony, saying, "Once again, we have come together to remember all of them, and to share the sorrow that all of us feel." On November 12, 2001, the Dominican Republic-bound plane had taken off from JFK Airport; turbulent air......

Witnesses told police that Carol Gotbaum was "teary" during her flight from New York to Phoenix, according to new documents released by the Phoenix Police Department. Another witness says the mother of three, who was traveling to Tucson for alcohol rehabilitation, may have also ordered an alcoholic drink during the flight. Carol Gotbaum became upset when she missed her connection to Tucson, yelling and throwing things, and the Phoenix police took her into custody. She......

The man who breached security at JFK Airport on Tuesday, after entering the restricted areas by walking through the exit lane near security screening and caused two terminals to be evacuated as the TSA and other authorities searched for him, was arrested yesterday in Albany. Authorities say that William Contreras Ramos, who managed to board his plane to the state capitol, had a 4-inch razor in his carry-on bag and was charged with carrying a......

This week in the Times, Bruni goes to Alto and L’Impero, both now run by chef Michael White (formerly of Fiamma Osteria). He finds Alto “better than ever” and bumps it up from two stars to three. “Alto is now a full throttle dining experience, no matter where on the menu you turn,” he says. L’Impero doesn’t fare so well, and receives two stars (down from the three it received from Eric Asimov in 2002).......

Need a last minute costume idea and in a New York state of mind? Here are a few NYC-themed ideas for your Halloween fête... R.I.P.ped from the Headlines • Thor Equities Need: Winged Thor helmet and hammer, brochures or maps (which can be printed out) of Coney Island -- and something to destroy them with. • The Staten Island Ninja Burglar Need: Ninja outfit, complete with nunchucks. Fake stab wound to the chest. Map......

Forget terrorists or crippling airline delays: Cats are enemy number one at JFK Airport. After years of airport and airline employees taking care of the many feral cats who make Kennedy their home, the Port Authority is trapping the cats. Rescue groups are worried, because the cats are feral, they are very unlikely to be placed in homes - which means they will probably be killed. A large cat population has grown at the......

In what can only be described as a shock, Joe Torre has decided not to return to the Bronx in 2008. Torre was offered a one-year deal at a base of $5-million with an additional $1-million guaranteed for each round of the playoffs that the Yankees reached. So, he could have made $8-million for getting to the World Series. The deal also included a team option for 2009 that would have vested at $8-million......

The East 72nd Street building that a single-engine plane crashed into almost a year ago is "almost whole" again. The NY Times visited the Bel Aire at 524 East 72nd Street and found the facade patched up and cleaned, windows replaced and interior hallways with new wallpaper and carpeting. And once the scaffolding is removed, the building's canopy can be replaced. On October 11 of last year, a Cirrus plane carrying Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle......

A Phoenix medical examiner's autopsy conducted on the body of New York resident Carol Anne Gotbaum was inconclusive. Gotbaum died in police custody at Phoenix's Sky Harbor Airport on Friday, after she became upset when she missed a connection to Tucson, where she was planning on checking into the Cottonwood de Tucson alcohol rehabilitation center. Police suggested that she died while struggling to break free of her handcuffs; her family, which includes stepmother-in-law Public Advocate......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: Water main break at Terminal 4 at JFK Airport, structural damage at a building on Broadway and Dey in Manhattan and a missing child at Fieldston Rd & Mosholu Ave in the Bronx The Williamsburgh Savings Bank gets naked. Even though Citigroup said its third quarter earnings would drop 60% and UBS fired its CFO and laid off 1500, Wall Street rallied to a record Dow close of 14,087.55.......

Ilana Benhuri filed court papers in early August suing Melanie Lidle and Stephanie Stanger (the widow of Lidle's flight instructor Tyler Stanger, who was also killed in the crash) for unspecified damages related to the 2006 crash that killed Yankee pitcher Cory Lidle and his flight instructor when the small airplane they were piloting flew into the side of a building on Manhattan's Upper East Side. 51-year-old Benhuri was badly burned during the incident, as......

Last night Top Chef began with a Quickfire Challenge consisting of everyone cooking Padma breakfast...we swear she thinks of the challenges when she's stoned (see: the onion cutting relay. C'mon!). After the "food awakening" they were in for a rude awakening. Sent to New York City, the contestants seemed genuinely happy when they saw the Manhattan skyline...but their dreams were dashed when they were held in New Jersey for a day at Newark Airport. Cooking......

The local newspapers tackled the sixth anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks in different ways. The Daily News offers most of its front cover to remember the day, while the Post gives some room to General Petraeus' Congressional testimony. The Post looks at how vibrant the Financial District is now, even after the devastating effects of the September 11, and the Daily News looks at how some families have decided to skip this......

Jim Riches is the Deputy Chief of the FDNY. He is one of the producers of Urban Legend, a video that doggedly questions the supposedly heroic actions of Mayor Giuliani on 9/11. We recently asked him a few questions about that, today's anniversary and the future of the WTC. How long have you been in the FDNY? 30 years experience in some of the busiest firehouses in NYC. Which firehouse are you working at now?......

Tomorrow, the city and other organizations will mark the sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Here's the official city commemoration:7AM: Families start to arrive at Zuccotti Park, where the ceremony will take place. 8:40AM: Mayor Bloomberg begins the program, which includes first responders reading victims' names and readings from NY Governor Spitzer, former NY Governor Pataki, NJ Governor Corzine and former NYC mayor Giuliani. Bagpipers and drummers lead......

A direct flight between Laguardia and Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport should only take about two and a half hours. On August 24th, it took a planeload of passengers flying Delta flight 521 14 hours to make the trip in what participants quoted by CBS2 call "madness" and a "torturous" experience. The 170 passengers of flight 521 were subjected to the sort of journey that makes bus travel seem like an attractive option. The flight's trouble......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: shots fired on Jamaica Ave. in Queens, another shooting on East 126th St. in Manhattan, and yet another shooting at Snyder and Rogers Aves. in Brooklyn. Some Lower East Side residents want the currently vacant portion of the Essex St. Market used as a site for cheaper housing, not additional restaurants for wealthier newcomers. A beautiful panorama shot from the Top of the Rock at Rockefeller Center. The Daily......

THEATER: With his zany imagination and distinctive bass-baritone voice, Joseph Keckler (myspace) has been generating buzz throughout the gooey honeycomb of the downtown performance art cabaret scene. Tonight he sprinkles his particular blend of whimsical catnip at Dixon Place with Cat Lady, in which a man re-enacts an ordinary day with his mother, who runs a community theater with cat actors out of her home. “Past lives are recalled, songs are sung, and finally a......

Maybe there is good reason to try to stay off Forbes' list of 400 wealthiest people. The Manhattan DA's office charged a 24-year-old Russian national with an elaborate identity ring that targeted rich Americans. Igor Klopov recruited people in the U.S., via sites like Monster.com and CareerBuilder.com, to help him and he managed to steal $1.5 million from four people. But Klopov was nabbed during an attempt to take $10.7 million from Anthony Pritzker, of......

The NYCLU and ACLU are suing the Transportation Security Administration and Jet Blue over an incident where a passenger was forced to cover/change his shirt, which had Arabic lettering. Last year, Reid Jarrar, an American resident of Iraqi descent, was taking a JetBlue flight at JFK when a TSA official asked him to over his shirt, which read "We Will Not Be Silent" in both English and Arabic. The shirt's message is taken from the......