American cancels hundreds of flights

[Stephi Rae]

Originally Posted by M. Krass

American's fleet is probably MD-82s and 83s, I'd guess. I haven't paid too much attention to whatever it is that's keeping them grounded, so I don't know if it's an issue that's common across which planes in that family.

That's true... and an interesting point... I did come across a list for spare parts that were sold for all MD-8#'s, DC-9's and 717's so it could be a common part across them all... I feel some more research coming on....

upon further research:

Since American is the airlines that has aircraft being grounded I started there...
According to the media, the MD-80 family aircraft have been grounded, however, absolutely no mention of groundings of 717 aircraft. It is curious to me that http://www.aa.com/content/amrcorp/co...ts/fleet.jhtml is a the fleet aircraft list on the American Airlines website does not list any 717's. Another site (http://www.airfleets.net/flottecie/A...20Airlines.htm) listing fleets for various airlines, lists 28 in the history of the airlines, but none active or in current possession by AA, most of those ended up with AirTran, and a few with Bangkok. I am inclined to believe that AA does not have any 717's... The media has said that 300 MD-80's have been grounded for inspection of wire bundles in the wheel wells of the aircraft. Of the initial aircraft inspected by the FAA over 90% failed the inspection. (I believe 19 were inspected at that time) These are all MD-82 and 83's as expected, mostly 82's.

As far as AirTran's 717's go, I guess they are not under the scope of the FAA just yet. I would not be surprised if they were next, however, because of their very close relation to the MD-80. It is very possible that the wiring that is under inspection is different or somewhat updated in the 717's as opposed to the MD-82's because their primary difference lies with glass cockpit, which could very well have required an alteration of the electrical system upon implementation when they were modifying the design. It is also possible that it is exactly the same. I was not able to find specific information on this area.
edit: "Systems throughout the 717 were redesigned to simplify components and to speed up maintenance. For example, 717 environmental controls now have 27 percent fewer line replaceable units than the DC-9 and MD-80. The electrical system was streamlined from 60 to only nine major components, eliminating 150 wires, and the landing gear's steel brakes were attached with pins instead of fasteners, cutting installation time by 60 percent." (from http://www.boeing.com/commercial/news/feature/717.html in 2002). This leads me to believe that the probability that this problem was fixed in the update to the 717 is very high. This further supports the conclusion I have already arrived at.

My conclusion, as of right now, AirTran's 717's look pretty safe, and AA is confident that their MD-80s will be running by early next week. I hope that they will not affect any team's participation in Atlanta.

Mr. Jason Brett, you probably don't remember me at all but I briefly met you at the Tacoma regional... I hope your flight is not affected, and I am excited to see 1346's robot down in Atlanta. Definitely a crowd-pleasing robot, my dad and grandparents can't stop talking about it!

Best of luck to all teams traveling to Atlanta on AA this coming week. (1983's going down on Delta I believe)