McClatchy: Safety problems in grounded jets known for years by FAA

[babylonsister]

Safety problems in grounded jets known for years by FAA
By Bob Cox | McClatchy Newspapers

* Posted on Saturday, April 12, 2008



FT. WORTH — Airline safety regulators have known for years that MD-80 airliners could have a potentially serious electrical wiring problem like the one that led to the sudden grounding of American Airlines planes last week.

But a review of Federal Aviation Administration documents indicates that the agency was in no hurry to force airlines to make fixes.

The FAA had begun the process by June 2003 to issue an airworthiness directive ordering inspections and repairs of MD-80 wiring bundles, located near the plane's main landing gear, and may have started as early as 2001, according to agency documents.

The directive didn't take effect until September 2006, when airlines were given 18 months to comply.

Years earlier, before McDonnell Douglas, the manufacturer of the MD-80, merged with Boeing, it had issued service bulletins warning airlines of the potential problem. FAA documents refer to a November 2002 Boeing service-alert bulletin that "supersedes and cancels" earlier McDonnell Douglas service bulletins.

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