Flights halted after seats pop out
Source: Agencies |
October 6, 2012, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
AMERICAN Airlines is canceling dozens of flights as it scrambles to fix seats that could pop loose during flight.
Airline officials said late Thursday that they had come up with a fix for the seats, and they began pulling 48 Boeing 757s out of service to make repairs. All the planes should be back in service by today.
The seat repairs, however, could inconvenience thousands of passengers. American said the work caused it to cancel 50 flights on Thursday and 44 yesterday. Each 757 that American operates in the US has 188 seats.
It's the latest black eye for American parent AMR Corp, which is operating under bankruptcy protection and trying to fend off a takeover by US Airways Group Inc. Flight cancellations and delays surged in September, which American blamed on a slowdown by pilots who are unhappy that American canceled their labor contract.
Since last week, seats have come loose on three American Airlines flights involving 757s that had been recently refurbished. The seats had been removed and reinstalled as part of the work.
Federal officials said they are continuing a safety investigation into the events at the third-biggest US airline.
American originally said the problem was due to a clamp that holds rows of seats to tracks on the aircraft floor.
But officials offered a new explanation on Thursday, saying that a combination of wear, poor design and even soda spilled into the tracks caused pins to pop out of the grooves. No other airlines have reported loose seats.
Airline officials said late Thursday that they had come up with a fix for the seats, and they began pulling 48 Boeing 757s out of service to make repairs. All the planes should be back in service by today.
The seat repairs, however, could inconvenience thousands of passengers. American said the work caused it to cancel 50 flights on Thursday and 44 yesterday. Each 757 that American operates in the US has 188 seats.
It's the latest black eye for American parent AMR Corp, which is operating under bankruptcy protection and trying to fend off a takeover by US Airways Group Inc. Flight cancellations and delays surged in September, which American blamed on a slowdown by pilots who are unhappy that American canceled their labor contract.
Since last week, seats have come loose on three American Airlines flights involving 757s that had been recently refurbished. The seats had been removed and reinstalled as part of the work.
Federal officials said they are continuing a safety investigation into the events at the third-biggest US airline.
American originally said the problem was due to a clamp that holds rows of seats to tracks on the aircraft floor.
But officials offered a new explanation on Thursday, saying that a combination of wear, poor design and even soda spilled into the tracks caused pins to pop out of the grooves. No other airlines have reported loose seats.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
