12 APR, 2008 - 1153 CDT

Quite by coincidence, today's Chicago Tribune lead editorial says exactly
the same thing that I emailed to all of you yesterday.

- Dick, W9GIG
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FAA, CYA

Chicago Tribune - April 12, 2008

Be glad the Federal Aviation Administration pilots a bureaucracy and not a plane, because if it piloted your plane you'd be lunging for the air sickness bag.

American Airlines canceled 3,115 flights this week, including 596 flights on Friday, to bring its fleet of MD-80 aircraft into full compliance with FAA technical directives. Another couple hundred flights could be canceled Saturday. This disruption has inconvenienced about 300,000 passengers and
will cost the airline tens of millions of dollars.

American's planes weren't in imminent danger.  Some of them weren't compliant with an FAA airworthiness directive regarding the wrapping on a 6-foot-long bundle of wires leading to a hydraulic pump in the right wheel well. Some ties were not spaced correctly. They should all have been an inch apart; some were an inch and a quarter to an inch and a half. American acknowledges it discovered one tie spacing that measured 4 inches. Some clamps faced one way and they should have faced another.

The FAA went for overkill with American after it got caught being lax with Southwest Airlines. FAA officials recently were hauled before Congress to explain why they had let Southwest slide on some maintenance inspections.

The wire-spacing issue didn't catch anyone by surprise. Four years ago, American, Boeing and the FAA developed a plan to avoid chafing problems with the wire bundle. (Three such incidents worldwide had been reported; none on American's planes. Those wires rubbing against each other or anything else could cause friction and that could lead to a fire.)

By the time the FAA issued the directive in 2006 and gave airlines 18 months to secure the wire bundles, American was already sheathing its bundles and securing them with ties and clamps. But there were some minor technical differences between the plan American, Boeing and the FAA developed in 2004 and the FAA's 2006 order.

American insists it could have dealt with the differences over the space of a week, and avoided the major disruptions we've seen. But it didn't get the chance. This week's mess occurred because a federal bureaucracy tried to look strong after looking weak. The FAA was covering its you-know-what.