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American Groundings Create Chaos At Airports

FAA takes heat from Congress over safety oversight

By Mark Huffman
ConsumerAffairs.com

April 10, 2008

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The mandatory inspections of its fleet of MD-80 aircraft forced American Airlines to cancel 500 flights on Monday and nearly 1,000 on Wednesday, creating long lines of frustrated passengers in the nation's airports. The chaos is likely to continue today, with as many as 900 more flights scratched.

At Denver International Airport Tuesday, 19 of American's 22 scheduled departures were canceled, along with the same number of arrivals, according to the Denver Post. The newspaper reported lines to American's sixth-floor ticket counter snaked to the mezzanine area overlooking the terminal's north security checkpoint.

It was the same story in Orlando, where 22 flights were canceled Wednesday.

"Folks, if you think this is going to get better, hang on. It's going to get a lot worse." Rep. John Mica (R-FL) told WDBO Radio.

In the first two days, American estimates that as many as 250,000 passengers had been affected by flight cancellations. Adding to the nightmare is the fact that most other airlines, which have reduced the number of their flights over the last year to save money, are flying at near capacity.

The inspections are focusing on the bundling of wires in the aircraft's wheel wells. The airline said the inspections, – based on FAA audits – are related to detailed, technical compliance issues and not safety-of-flight issues.

"We've been working in good faith to ensure that we are in complete compliance with this airworthiness directive," said Gerard Arpey, Chairman and CEO of American Airlines. "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."

The FAA raised additional concerns regarding the recent inspection of American's aircraft and the manner in which American followed the engineering change order (ECO) that had been written for the airworthiness directive related to the wiring in the MD-80s wheel wells. Specifically, some areas of concern included the spacing of the ties on the wiring bundle and the direction in which the retention clips and lacing cords were facing.

American said it has assigned teams of employees that include aviation maintenance technicians, quality assurance inspectors, and engineers to inspect the aircraft and ensure full compliance, as well as to make the necessary adjustments.

Any aircraft that does not completely comply with the detailed technical specifications of installation will be removed from service until all specifications have been met, company executives said. Aircraft will return to service as they have been inspected and all necessary work completed.

American is just the latest airline to react to the FAA's new emphasis on inspections, in the wake of heavy criticism of the agency's monitoring and enforcement of inspection mandates. Southwest Airlines faces a possible $10 million fine after it few a number of its Boeing 737 jets that had not been inspected for cracks in their fuselage, as ordered.

Outsourcing

The Wall Street Journal reported recently that Southwest, which faces a potential $10 million fine over the inspection violations, has cancelled plans to outsource aircraft maintenance to a company in El Salvador.

"We've been trying for years to get the FAA to pay attention to how dangerous it is to outsource maintenance overseas," said Teamsters Union President Jim Hoffa, whose members perform maintenance work in the U.S. "Our mechanics keep telling us how they often have to re-do work that was done wrong by airlines' outside vendors."

"Airline mechanics have to meet much higher standards in America than they do overseas," Hoffa said. "Mechanics in foreign shops don't even have to be FAA-certificated."

Hoffa said that between 1997 and 2006, U.S. airlines increased their outsourced maintenance expenses from 37 percent to 64 percent," Hoffa said.

In advance of Oberstar's Capitol Hill hearings on the subject, FAA Acting Administrator Robert Sturgell said the agency would institute a two-year ban on former FAA inspectors going to work for airlines in important maintenance jobs.

FAA whistle blowers have increasingly complained that FAA inspectors failed to act on repeated warnings about Southwest's inspection lapses, allowing the airline to "voluntarily" report missed deadlines, thus avoiding penalties.

Southwest faces a possible $10.2 million fine after the FAA cited the discount carrier for failing to inspect some of their planes for structural cracks. Specifically, the FAA maintains that the airline continued to use planes after it missed a mandatory deadline to have them inspected.

The inspections were ordered to look for structural cracks in the fuselage of the Boeing 737 aircraft Southwest uses.

Southwest initially said the missed inspections were an oversight, and after discovering the error, quickly re-inspected all the aircraft for cracks. It says the inspections were mostly routine and redundant and that flight safety was never compromised.

The FAA-mandated inspections are designed to find tiny cracks in an aircraft's fuselage before they can get bigger and compromise the structural integrity of the plane. Since a modern jetliner may be used for 30 years or more, these inspections are supposed to find the kinds of problems than can occur as an aircraft ages.

See Airlines Outsourcing More Maintenance.

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