American Airlines apologised to its Latin American customers yesterday over a pilots' manual suggesting they like to get drunk on board and may call in a bomb hoax if they are late. The manual was released in a Miami courtroom on Tuesday during pre-trial hearings in lawsuits over the 1995 crash of an American Airlines jet near the Colombian city of Cali, in which 159 people died. The manual says Latin American passengers can become drunk and unruly on board and that there are reports of people making false bomb threats to delay planes if they are late. American was also forced to apologise to its customers three months ago, when passengers on its first Austin-to-Miami flight complained about jokes involving Cuban President Fidel Castro.

A Castro lookalike stood at the departure gate and, once passengers boarded the flight, the pilot announced: "This is Fidel Castro, and I'm going to fly you to Miami."

The jokes offended Cuban-American passengers.