Report: FAA Probe Of American Airlines May Widen
By: RNS
Updated: October 17, 2009
(Chicago, IL) -- A newspaper report says the Federal Aviation Administration is expanding its probe into suspected structural problems on some American Airlines MD-80 jets.
According to the "Wall Street Journal," federal regulators are looking into allegations that at least one plane was considered unsafe to fly at normal cruise altitude.
The paper reports FAA inspectors are examining allegations by pilots that one of the MD-80s was believed to be in such poor condition that it was flown without passengers from Dallas to the carriers Tulsa, Oklahoma maintenance base at unusually low altitudes to avoid the stress of pressurizing the fuselage during the trip.
Preliminary FAA findings have identified as many as 16 of the airlines planes that may have suffered from the substandard bulkhead repairs.
