Tag Archives for maintenance.
An American Airlines maintenance error in Tulsa during brake system modification, swapping hydraulic lines and reversing wheel speed sensor wiring, defeated the Beoing 737-800’s antiskid logic. This resulted in total loss of effective braking, tire failure, and runway overrun. No injuries occurred, but the event prompted fleetwide maintenance audits and Boeing procedural updates.
A tug driving too fast in wet conditions at the Charlotte airpor hydroplaned into an American Airlines jet, doing serious damage to the aircraft.
After Sunday morning’s incident where an engine cowling detached off of a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-800 shortly after takeoff from Denver, the airline now knows what happened. Someone screwed up.
It became international news when a video began circulating on social media of what appears to be a United Airlines pilot performing an impromptu repair on a plane window just before takeoff from Denver to Dallas – Fort Worth.
It’s understandable why the average passenger who might fly once a year would find this strange.
The FAA reportedly won’t let United Airlines grow. They’re taking an active presence at the airline. Reportedly no new planes can enter commercial service, pilots can’t get certified, and new routes can’t be announced.
Customers see a poorly maintained airplane cabin interior, and they begin to question whether the parts of the plane they can’t see are maintained in the same manner. That’s not really how this works, but it’s a logical inference for most passengers – especially with the safety of the Boeing 737 MAX 9 in the news, after a door plug came off an Alaska Airlines aircraft inflight.
Recently the door plug blew out inflight on an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9, causing rapid depressurization of the aircraft – and a shirt and two phones even flew out of the aircraft. Had anyone been sitting in that spot things could have been much worse.
To passengers, though, cabin interior maintenance matters. Passengers don’t distinguish between airworthiness issues and cosmetic ones. Indeed, the only insight they have into the likelihood that a plane is being well-maintained is what they directly observe, and they infer from there. In light of what happened to the Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9, everyone is especially sensitive.
On October 29 American Airlines sent an eight year old Boeing 777-300ER to their Tulsa maintenance facility for insect abatement.
A couple of weeks later the plane was out and back in service – but it flew a single Miami to Dallas – Fort Worth segment before returning to Tulsa on November 14. Aircraft N724AN was still on the ground in Tulsa when I wrote about it in early December. It is now finally flying again. Here’s where it’s going.
Did you know that eight years into the American Airlines-US Airways merger, not all work groups were on a single system, and the merger wasn’t ‘complete’?
American was one airline to passengers long before it was a single airline to employees. The airline’s systems for tracking aircraft maintenance were still separate – until last week.
One consequence of American running a less reliable operation is passengers getting stranded. When the airline blames weather they aren’t responsible for costs like hotel rooms and meals. So airlines have a long history of being less than forthcoming about the true reasons behind operational problems.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
