Mar 26, 2008 6:37 am US/Pacific
American Airlines Cancels Dozens Of Flights
DALLAS (CBS13) ―
American Airlines has canceled nearly 200 flights today to inspect a wiring issue on some of their planes.
American Airlines canceled less than 10 percent of the nation's biggest airline's scheduled service, on Wednesday so its crews can inspect some wire bundles aboard its MD-80 aircraft.
The need for the new inspections became known during an audit of American by a joint team of inspectors from the Federal Aviation Administration and the Fort Worth-based airline, according to a statement from American.
American Airlines issued the following statement this morning.
American Airlines issued the following statement this morning. "It has been widely reported that the FAA has increased the auditing of maintenance records of all airlines. During the audit of American Airlines, a joint team of AA and FAA inspectors raised questions regarding an already accomplished directive concerning how a certain bundle of wires is secured to the MD-80 aircraft. We are re-inspecting the MD-80's to make sure the wiring is installed and secured exactly according to the directive.
Because the process can take several hours per aircraft, we have had to cancel approximately 200 flights as the aircraft are being inspected. Many inspections have already been completed and the aircraft are currently in service. We are in the process of completing the inspections on the remaining airplanes and will return them to service on a rolling basis throughout the day."
So far, one flight in Sacramento has been canceled.
About 50 departures each were canceled at American's hubs at Dallas-Fort Worth and Chicago O'Hare international airports.
Shares of American's parent AMR Corp. slipped 13 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $9.50 in premarket trading Wednesday. They have traded in a 52-week range of $8.38 to $34.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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