American Airlines Grounds Another 595 Flights

From the AP

Air traveler angst was sure to continue Friday as American Airlines grounded hundreds more flights. The financial toll and loss of goodwill likely would grow as well, as the inspection-related mess spread further to other carriers and hurt an industry already bleeding cash thanks to high fuel costs.

Lawmakers were asking questions and some fed-up air travelers headed for trains. Others gave the airlines a pass, saying the companies were doing the best they could.

“If somebody’s got a choice between being in a plane crash and being late, is there a choice?” Jane Bernard, a writer from New York who was delayed by at least three hours en route from LaGuardia Airport to Miami, said Thursday.

Mingo Valencia, a 60-year-old stuck at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport while heading home to Midland, Texas, wasn’t so gracious.

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Flight Cancellations Likely For Other US Airlines

From the AP

This week’s flight cancellations by American Airlines are likely to spread to other U.S. airlines in the weeks ahead as federal regulators step up a by-the-book review of carriers’ compliance with maintenance and safety orders issued in recent years.

“If we do uncover any safety issues from these audits, the carriers will have to make a business decision as to how to deal with the issue,” Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Les Dorr said.

Midwest Airlines on Thursday became the latest airline to ground planes and cancel flights to re-inspect a wiring harness, the same issue that has forced American to cancel more than 2,400 flights and Alaska Airlines to cancel about 40 more in recent days.

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MD-80S Involved In Two Deadly Crashes

From the AP

The MD-80 series, a workhorse family of airplanes at the center of a growing maintenance problem for American Airlines, has been involved in two deadly crashes overseas and the carrier’s most serious mid-air emergency in recent months.

The twin-engine plane began life as a modified version of the DC-9, entering service in October 1980. Boeing Corp., which later bought the aircraft’s original manufacturer, McDonnell Douglas Corp., quit selling the plane in 1999.

AMR Corp.’s American Airlines is the world’s largest operator of MD-80s, although the planes are also used by Delta Air Lines Inc., Alaska Airlines, Allegiant Air and numerous carriers abroad. Despite their relative age and lower fuel milage, the planes make up nearly a third of American’s fleet.

“It’s a ubiquitous single-aisle domestic airliner,” said Robert Mann, an airline consultant who was involved in American’s fleet planning when it first decided to use the plane. “Over time, it’s obviously been an airplane American liked.”

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US Airways Pilot On Leave After Gun Goes Off In Flight

From Foxnews.com

The pilot whose gun discharged in the cockpit of a U.S. Airways flight from Denver to Charlotte, N.C., has been placed on leave pending an investigation, USA Today reported.

No injuries were reported after the incident on the Saturday flight from Denver to Charlotte, N.C., and the plane has been taken out of service, USA Today reported.

Airline and federal officials said Flight 1536 was not in any danger as a result of the incident, which occurred about 9:50 a.m. MDT.

Officials said the unnamed pilot was allowed to carry the weapon as part of the Transportation Security Administration’s Federal Flight Deck Officer program. It was created after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The program allows eligible crew members — including pilots, navigators and flight engineers — to use a firearm to defend against any act of air piracy or criminal violence.

The TSA said the Federal Air Marshals Service takes the matter seriously.

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American Airlines Cancels 200 MD-80s Flights For Inspection

From the AP

American Airlines canceled about 200 flights on Wednesday so its crews can inspect some wire bundles aboard its MD-80 aircraft.

The canceled flights represent less than 10 percent of the nation’s biggest airline’s scheduled service for the day.

The need for the new inspections became known during an audit of American by a joint team of inspectors from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Fort Worth-based airline, according to a statement from American.

 

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Less Than 1% Of Commercial Flights Have Air Marshalls Aboard

From CNN.com

Of the 28,000 commercial airline flights that take to the skies on an average day in the United States, fewer than 1 percent are protected by on-board, armed federal air marshals, a nationwide CNN investigation has found.

That means that a terrorist or other criminal bent on taking over an aircraft would be confronted by a trained air marshal on as few as 280 daily flights, according to more than a dozen federal air marshals and pilots interviewed by CNN.

The investigation found those low numbers even as the Transportation Security Administration in recent months has conducted tests in which it has been able to smuggle guns and bomb-making materials past airport security screeners.

The air marshal program began in 1970, after a rash of airline hijackings, and it was expanded significantly after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Specially trained to safeguard passengers and crew aboard crowded aircraft, air marshals were seen as a critical component in the overall effort to secure America’s commercial aviation system.

 

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Southwest Airlines to Appeal 10.2 Million Dollar Penalty

From the AP

Southwest Airlines grounded 41 planes overnight in the wake of its recent admission that it had missed required inspections of some planes for structural cracks.

The move announced Wednesday comes as Southwest faces a $10.2 million civil penalty for continuing to fly nearly 50 planes after the airline told regulators that it had missed required inspections of the planes.

The Federal Aviation Administration, which announced the penalty last week, has also come under fire for failing to immediately ground the Southwest jets when it learned they had not been inspected for cracks in the fuselage.

Southwest spokeswoman Christi Day said Wednesday that the move to ground 41 planes resulted in some flights being canceled, although she didn’t have a precise figure.

The grounded planes represent about 8 percent of Southwest’s fleet. The company said at the end of last year it had 520 Boeing 737 jets. Nearly 200 of them are older models, the Boeing 737-300, that were supposed to undergo extra inspections for cracks in the fuselage.

Southwest Chief Executive Gary Kelly had said Tuesday he was concerned by findings from an internal investigation into the missed inspections. He announced that the Dallas-based company had placed three employees on paid leave while it investigated the situation.

 

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Southwest Airlines Flew Unsafe Planes

From CNN.com

Discount air carrier Southwest Airlines flew thousands of passengers on aircraft that federal inspectors said were “unsafe” as recently as last March, according to detailed congressional documents obtained by CNN.

Documents submitted by FAA inspectors to congressional investigators allege the airline flew at least 117 of its planes in violation of mandatory safety checks. In some cases, the documents say, the planes flew for 30 months after government inspection deadlines had passed and should have been grounded until the inspections could be completed.

The planes were “not airworthy,” according to congressional air safety investigators.

On Thursday, the FAA initiated actions to seek a $10.2 million civil penalty against Southwest for allegedly operating 46 airplanes without conducting mandatory checks for fuselage cracking.

“The FAA is taking action against Southwest Airlines for a failing to follow rules that are designed to protect passengers and crew,” said Nicholas A. Sabatini, the FAA’s associate administrator for aviation safety, in a written statement.

 

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