American Airlines planes grounded, creates havoc -- Transportat...

Delays caused by wiring problems that grounded more than 300 American Airlines planes and caused havoc for more than 100,000 passengers -- including thousands at the metropolitan area's three major airports -- ...

[Dow Jones]

Every airline company is going to pull this stunt at least once this year. Think of the money saved on fuel on all these flights that were grounded. Don't be fooled into a wiring issue.

[hugh-g-rection]

I am glad they did not fly these planes if there was an engineering fault with them, better to ground the fle
et and leave 100,00 stranded then fly as if nothing is wrong and have 300 die

[Dangerous]

9 months pregnant? I thought you weren't permitted to fly in the third trimester.
Oh and Dow Jones - the savings on fuel is more than offset by the loss in ticket prices.

[okay]

9 months pregnant? she must be so stupid to a) travel all the way from PA to fly out of NY. Are there any other airports closer to her? B) she is pregnant why would she even consider to travel, if she had the baby on plane what did she want to make the news?

[LI Artist]

Dow Jones wrote:

Every airline company is going to pull this stunt at least once this year. Think of the money saved on fuel on all these flights that were grounded. Don't be fooled into a wiring issue.

There is no stunt, the FAA are the ones who grounded the planes by ordering the inspections! And just so you know, there is a wiring issue. It might not be a huge problem, but better safe than sorry. I don't know about all the people out there, but god forbid a plane went down or something happened. All the people b itching about it would be the first to point fingers and sue!

And to address the "SAVING" money on fuel issue, you must be out of your mind thinking that AA is saving money. Not only are they losing money, but also the reputation of the company. All it takes is one bad experience to get me mad and I will never use that company again. But that is only my opinion.

[michellefromquee ns]

This wouldn't be a crisis if the airllines spent the money to maintained the infrastructure of its planes. instead, they stole from the healthcare and pensions of the workers to give to mangement. Damn them to hell.

[Big Bob]

The most common process for AA to go about determining how to modify one of its fleets is to write an Engineering Change Order (ECO). An ECO is the authority to make a change and provides the method of making the change. AA technical writers compose the ECOs, which then have to be approved by the engineers.

Due to AA's FAA certification, which is the same as all other large airlines, American's engineers have the ability to implement ECOs after they are approved internally.

While this is the given process for making changes to American's fleets, it can also leave room for interpretation to be made as to the best way to write an ECO and accomplish compliance with a given AD for AA's specific aircraft configurations.

The issue with the company's MD-80 fleet surrounds questions raised by the FAA about the way in which American implemented this particular ECO addressing the auxiliary pump wiring AD. AA had completed the ECO within the AD specified time frame, but there was a need to change the way in which the company complied with the AA ECO regarding such items as the spacing of the ties on the wiring bundles and the direction the retention clips and lacing cords.

The aircraft were airworthy and at no time were any passengers at risk.