Delta Canceling 275 Flights Through Friday To Complete Wiring Inspections
It's official—Delta has said they're canceling a total of 275 flights, or about 3% of their worldwide schedule (we don't know what the US percentage is), to complete inspections of wiring in 117 planes. To check whether your flight is impacted, visit this page on Delta's site.
"We expect this voluntary review, which is taking place on Delta's 117 MD-88 aircraft, to result in approximately 275 cancellations through early Friday, impacting about 3 percent of Delta's worldwide flight schedule. Based on the aggressive and proactive re-inspection schedule, Delta expects inspections to be complete on approximately 70 percent of its MD-88 fleet by early evening, with normal operations planned by early Friday."
"Delta, American cancel flights for safety inspections" [East Bay Business Times]
(Photo: Cubbie_n_Vegas)
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Comments:
when they use the term "voluntary review", you know they mean - the FAA is about to rain holy hell down on us if we don't
O they are taking it "Very Seriously" though!
Yup. My boyfriend's best friend was stuck in B'ham for the night last night because his flight was canceled because of this. I'm still not sure if he made it back to St. Louis today or not.
@renilyn:
If they'd been taking it seriously, they would have scheduled these inspections in such a way that they did not impact flight schedules.
I have the feeling that the FAA has been acting as the anti-consumerists Bush administration's lapdog for the airlines by not enforcing the regular schedule of inspections that would have precluded them from having to pull so many planes out of service at the same time.
Delta's so-called "voluntary review" is most-likely their spin for not having had the inspections done on a regular basis and now since they have the spotlight on themselves, they have to get it done.
Funny, for Delta and American the MD-80 series of aircraft are the ones being pulled and inspected.
I wonder what's up with the plane?
@sled_dog: They have known horizontal stabilizer issues that require more constant lubrication than other planes, furthermore... they're just old (and should really be replaced)
The AA MD's have the nickname Mad Dog for a reason.
The issue is the spacing between ties on a cable bundle. Basically the it was a little unclear that the ties needed to be 1 inch or less between each of them. The FAA put out a mandate that they all needed to be checked.
Unfortunately, it takes a couple of hours to check each plane.
I do not know if this is good because Delta is conducting safety checks, or bad because Delta should have planned a head for this and not canceled so many flights in such a short period of time.