Apr 2, 2008 5:29 pm US/Central
United Grounds 52 Planes For Emergency Inspection
Latest In String Of Problems With Fleet
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
There are delays and cancellations at O'Hare International Airport on Wednesday, but not because of the weather.
Emergency inspections were underway Wednesday on the 52 Boeing 777 aircraft in the fleet for United Airlines. The planes amount to 11 percent of the total United fleet.
The 777 is a wide-body, long-haul aircraft with a seat capacity of more than 300. Three of the planes sat on the maintenance ramp at O'Hare Wednesday morning.
United says during a review of maintenance records, inspectors discovered that tests were not performed on one of the five bottles in the planes' fire suppression system. That mistake was voluntarily reported to the Federal Aviation Administration, United said.
The planes, which have a so-called "intuitive" self-diagnostic system that would have detected any malfunction with the fire suppression system, mostly fly international routes and from the carrier's major hubs.
United officials said they are in the process of checking the fire suppression systems, which are regularly tested before each flight. Until the tests were complete, the planes would not fly, United said.
United said 10 Boeing 777's ultimately departed from O'Hare as usual, while three flights on the planes were canceled. The airline hopes to have operations back to normal in 24 to 36 hours.
Worldwide, 31 to 84 scheduled 77 flights were canceled. Delays were reported in Japan and Hawaii Wednesday morning and the airline warned passengers to be prepared for other delays and cancellations.
Azumi Nakazawa's mother and grandmother were scheduled to fly home to Tokyo, Japan on a 777 and were told their plane was being serviced.
Nakazawa said she expects they will be delayed by at least two hours, possibly more.
United said customers traveling Wednesday or Thursday on Boeing 777 planes will be given a travel waiver, which will allow them to change their travel plans without paying certain fees.
But some travelers arrived at O'Hare International Airport only to discover their flights had been canceled, and were not pleased.
At Terminal One, passengers were trying to make other travel plans, some of them frantically. The ones CBS 2 spoke with said they did not know about the cancellations until they arrived at the airport.
United is rolling the planes back into service after checks are complete, but that does not help some passengers.
"They should have given us a head's up about this. Now we lose a whole day in Maui, on our 30th anniversary," said Indiana resident Helen Dehenes.
She said she would tell United, "Get your act together. Let people know – if you're planning this, let them know ahead of time so they can try to reschedule and book something else, instead of forcing people to wait in line over and over again."
Another ticket-holder was heading to Los Angeles for a talent show tryout. He is on another flight, but he does not know if he will get there on time.
In the meantime, a statement on the United Web site says the airline apologizes for any inconvenience.
This is the latest in a string of incidents that have forced United to ground planes for reinspection.
But passengers say they still are confident about flying.
"I feel safer on a plane than a bus or train," said United passenger Alicia Black.
"I know planes have issues," said United passenger Scott Rohlfs. "It's never bothered me in the 20 years I've been a business traveler."
Federal Aviation Administration Associate Administrator Robert Sturgell says this is the safest period in aviation history.
"I'd much rather be here today, talking to you about things we found and things we are correcting than for all of us to be in a field at an accident site, talking about what happened," Sturgell said.
Last week, the airline found improper wiring in the landing gear for three Airbus A320 aircraft, which might have been to blame for runway incidents on two occasions.
On March 20, United was forced to re-inspect seven of its jumbo jets, after a maintenance facility in South Korea discovered inspection equipment had not been tested on time.
Some delays were reported in parts of the country as altimeters were checked out.
A week earlier, Southwest Airlines grounded 44 planes in Chicago, after being fined a record $10 million by the FAA for failing to perform required safety inspections.
The FAA has been checking maintenance records at all domestic airlines the Southwest incident.
The FAA revealed Wednesday that four U.S. airlines are under investigation for failing to inspect wiring in the wheel well areas, but it would not name the companies.
UAL shares fell 54 cents, or 2.3 percent, to $22.59 in midday trading Wednesday.
CBS 2's Kristyn Hartman and Joanie Lum, and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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