American to re-inspect more MD-80s

[jonjuan]

Cancels hundreds of flights today...

http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/040908dnbusnewaacancellations.44dec2ce.html


American Airlines canceling 'several hundred flights' to re-inspect MD-80s 4:25 PM CT


[SIZE=-1]04:25 PM CDT on Tuesday, April 8, 2008

[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]By TERRY MAXON / The Dallas Morning News
[email protected][/SIZE]

American Airlines Inc. said Tuesday it is canceling “several hundred flights” to re-inspect its McDonnell Douglas aircraft.
“We’ve been working in good faith to ensure that we are in complete compliance with this airworthiness directive,” American Airlines chairman and chief executive officer said Gerard Arpey said Tuesday afternoon.
“We regret and apologize that we are once again causing inconvenience to our customers, but we will continue to work in good faith until we satisfy all of the technical issues related to this airworthiness directive.”
American canceled hundreds of flights two weeks ago for the same reason: to make sure that wire bundles in the fleet of MD-80s were properly protected.
American said the re-inspections are to “ensure precise and complete compliance with the Federal Aviation Administration’s airworthiness directive” and that the inspections “are related to detailed, technical compliance issues and not safety-of-flight issues.”
The Allied Pilots Association said the Federal Aviation Administration randomly inspected 10 MD-80s on Monday to make sure the jets had been properly inspected and modified. Of the 10, nine did not pass the audit, the union said.
At Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, Dallas businessman Tony Morris, 45, was preparing to board his American flight to Minneapolis-St. Paul in mid afternoon when his BlackBerry and that of passengers around him began alerting them that their 4 p.m. flight was canceled.
The airport departure display, which just minutes before had been covered with “blue” to indicate the flights were going, quickly was covered with red labels telling passengers that their flights were canceled.
“There’s not a lot of happy people out here,” he said.
He and a colleague were catching an early-evening Midwest Airlines flight through Milwaukee and will still make their early Wednesday meeting, although they wouldn’t make a Tuesday evening meal with clients.
A D/FW Airport spokesman said at about 3:30 p.m. that American had notified airport officials that it would be canceling all flights using MD-80 aircraft Tuesday and expected there may be additional cancellations Wednesday.
The airport was advised the re-inspections would affect as many as 500 flights systemwide, spokesman Brian Murnahan said, and said American had canceled 193 D/FW departures for Tuesday. On an average day, American operates around 2,200 flights systemwide, including about 500 at D/FW Airport.
According to the Web site Flightstats.com, American as of 4:15 p.m. had canceled 320 flights.

Staff writer Suzanne Marta contributed to this report.

 

[fencitup]

Well...atleast they are being pro-active. Better safe than sorry.

 

[Grandpa +65]

Whaoo no good for them
American's parent, AMR Corp., is scheduled to report first-quarter earnings in two weeks, and analysts are forecasting a loss of more than $300 million, according to a survey by Thomson Financial.
Jamie Baker, an analyst with JPMorgan.

 

[exdashdriver]

ALL Mad Dogs grounded

This is from an email inside AA...

"Last night, the FAA conducted a spot inspection
of the S80 fleet to check compliance with AD 2006-15-15,
as incorporated into an American ECO(engineering
compliance/change order).

Using their method where they sample a statistical
number of aircraft and extrapolate to the entire
fleet, the FAA examined 10 aircraft at DFW. 9
were found not to be in compliance with the ECO.
As a result, the entire S80 fleet is grounded
as of now."

DFW is going to SUCK for the next couple of days...

 

[pipejockey]

Why is it that southworst gets 10 days on top of who knows how long they were operating without the appropriate inspections but AA has to cancel 1000 flights over this horse shi t. Remember it was southworst that caused all this overreaction in the first place because they think they are above the rules and clearly had the faa in their back pocket.

Lets see, Aloha(which is sad to see), ATA, Skypuss:laugh:,
Champion, and then southworst???

Well I can dream can't I!!!

 

[Snapshot]

Looking like it's not just American. Delta and Alaska got grounded as well.


Feds got busted and now they have to put on a show.

I'm going to call it the "Southwest Effect"

 

[jonjuan]

Why is it that southworst gets 10 days on top of who knows how long they were operating without the appropriate inspections but AA has to cancel 1000 flights over this horse shi t.

It's because you decided to work for AA instead of WN....

 

[swa737-700]

Why is it that southworst gets 10 days on top of who knows how long they were operating without the appropriate inspections but AA has to cancel 1000 flights over this horse shi t. Remember it was southworst that caused all this overreaction in the first place because they think they are above the rules and clearly had the faa in their back pocket.

Lets see, Aloha(which is sad to see), ATA, Skypuss:laugh:,
Champion, and then southworst???

Well I can dream can't I!!!

So according to your "logic", had SouthBest not been "caught" as you like to say, ameriscum would still be intentionally flying these md-80s in an un-airworthy condition? Wow. Obviously SWA was much more in compliance with their jets than aa. We just had to inspect 44 jets and cancelled two hundredish flights compared to the fiasco aa now finds itself. Typical aa mentality to blame someone else...first it was TWA'ers, now SWA. How 'bout looking in the mirror.
Your hope that more people lose their job is truly disgusting.

 

[pipejockey]

Your hope that more people lose their job is truly disgusting.

People losing jobs is not my hope but merely an unfortunate byproduct of getting rid of this excess capacity in the form of LCC's. It's all about the ability to raise prices allowing our companies to earn profits which will hopefully allow us to regain some of the lost earning power that has been stolen from us by management during the last 7 years. Unfortunately, it will take a lot more than the extremely small companies that went under. Maybe jetwho will throw in the towel next?? Ah, here I go dreaming again.

 

[vikesfanIV]

Why is it that southworst gets 10 days on top of who knows how long they were operating without the appropriate inspections but AA has to cancel 1000 flights over this horse shi t. Remember it was southworst that caused all this overreaction in the first place because they think they are above the rules and clearly had the faa in their back pocket.

Lets see, Aloha(which is sad to see), ATA, Skypuss:laugh:,
Champion, and then southworst???

Well I can dream can't I!!!

I watched the testimony the FAA and SW gave to Congress and have been amazed by the amount of misinformation in the news and on this forum. SW made a huge mistake but it certainly wasn't "intentional" (nor a strategy by upper management) like many would like to believe. I'm new to the airline industry so I have no idea why so many people hate Southwest but here's a summary for anyone who is actually interested in the truth.

(disclaimer: I am currently in the SW pool so you may think I am being biased. In reality, I was quite concerned about what I was hearing in the news and watched the 6 hours of testimony to help make a decision on joining the company. Take it for what it's worth...)

1) The AD's (6 of them actually) in question were a result of the Aloha 737-200 they everyone knows about. SW actually helped develop the AD's because of their extensive knowledge of 737's. All of SW's 737s (300/500/700's) were built by Boeing using a different manufacturing process and had significant structural upgrades from the original 200 design. This upgrade combined with the fact that Southwest DID inspect 99.4% of the required skin area meant there was absolutely NO safety hazard to the public (despite what you've read in every news article the last 3 weeks). The real issue is why/how did Southwest violate the AD.....

2) SWA was going above and beyond the AD trying to make a permanent fix to their fleet that would alleviate the need for future inspections once the modifications were complete. This permanent fix had been coordinated with Boeing/FAA and given approval.

3) In the process of making these improvements (at significant cost) SW engineers realized that the permanent solution actually missed a very small portion of the skin that was required to be inspected by the AD (.6% of the total skin area to be exact). So the whole theory that Southwest didn't perform the inspections is completely false. They made the fixes and performed the inspections but missed that .6% area.

4). At this point SWA self-reported the error to the FAA. Here's where the BIG problem arose. A mid-level manager at Southwest got permission from the FAA guy you've heard about in the news (who definately was too cozy with SWA) to fly the airplanes for 10 days while the inspections were completed.

5) This decision to fly was never made by senior management at Southwest. It didn't even reach the Vice President of MX operations. That dumb as$ mid-level manager who was buddy buddy with the the FAA never told his superiors. Needless to say, Herb and Gary will have to fix the information flow (or lack of it) between mid-level and upper management.

6) So, did SW screw-up? Absolutely yes. Did they fly planes that were in technical violation of an AD? Absolutely yes.

But after listening to the whole story it certainly is not the picture I've seen painted by the media. There were obviously issues with mid-level management and FAA oversight but to act like this was a concious corporate decision to fly airplanes with cracks in them is simply false. If Southwest didn't have safety as a top priority I have a hard time understanding why they were spending large amounts of extra $$$ to make permanent improvements to their fleet.

So that's my take on it.... for those of you who like to be objective you can make up your own mind. For the Southwest haters (that includes you pipejockey) I'm ready for the spears I'm sure you're about to throw.