Oct. 02--American Airlines said it will inspect eight Boeing 757 aircraft in its fleet after a row of seats became loose on two planes.
The Fort Worth-based carrier said there could be an issue with a particular model of seats and contacted the Federal Aviation Administration about a possible problem.
"An initial internal investigation into why a row of seats became loose on two American Airlines Boeing 757s has indicated that there could be a possible issue with a certain model of seats and how they fit into the tracking used to secure the seats," said American spokesman Andrea Huguely.
On Saturday, an American flight from Boston to Miami made an emergency landing at New York's JFK Airport when a row of seats shifted in midair. Passengers in the row were moved to other seats, and no one was injured during the landing. Passengers were switched to another aircraft to continue to Miami.
American said it also found a loose row of seats on a Boeing 757 at JFK Airport on Monday, prompting the reinspection of other 757s. The company said it flew engineers and mechanics from its Tulsa maintenance base to New York to examine the aircraft.
One of the airplanes with the loose seats had been worked on at an American maintenance facility, and the other had maintenance work performed at a third-party aircraft maintenance company, Huguely said.
"Preliminary information indicates that both aircraft had recently undergone maintenance during which the seats had been removed and reinstalled," the FAA said, adding that "other rows of seats were not properly secured."
The maintenance issue is the latest challenge for American, which has struggled with numerous flight delays and cancellations in the past two weeks. The carrier has blamed the operational problems partly on last-minute maintenance requests made by pilots, which increased after a judge ruled that their contract could be terminated. The pilots union denies that it has coordinated a work slowdown.
On Monday, as of 7 p.m., American's on-time arrival rate was 61 percent with 17 canceled arrivals for the day. Two of its competitors, United Continental and Delta Air Lines, had on-time rates of 85 percent and 79 percent respectively Monday.
American plans to shift more of its maintenance work to third-party companies, like TIMCO and ST Aerospace, as it closes its Alliance Fort Worth maintenance facility in the next few months and lays off close to 4,000 employees, including 2,600 mechanics, store clerks and other ground service personnel.
Andrea Ahles, 817-390-7631
Twitter: @Sky_Talk
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