The Federal Aviation Administration is stepping up oversight of American Airlines after three botched landings by the carrier over 11 days, the Wall Street Journal reported. .
The latest incident, which prompted heightened FAA scrutiny of American’s operations, involved a jetliner whose wingtip struck the ground while landing in Austin, Texas, on Christmas Eve, the Journal said.
There were no injuries and the McDonnell Douglas MD-80 aircraft was inspected and returned to service. But the incident raised concern inside the FAA, people familiar with the matter told the Journal, because it followed two more-serious landing mistakes on aircraft operated by the AMR unit in December.
On Dec. 13, an American Boeing 737 ended up with a damaged wingtip after part of its main landing gear veered off the runway while touching down in low visibility in Charlotte, N.C.
In Kingston, Jamaica, on Dec. 22 another American Boeing 737 careened off the end of a runway while landing on the island amid heavy rain.
The jet’s fuselage broke into three sections, its crumpled nose slid to a halt barely feet from the shoreline and several people were hospitalized, but there were no fatalities.
NBC confirmed that the three events prompted FAA officials to start analyzing Fort Worth, Texas-based American’s data on landing incidents as well as voluntary pilot reports about such past occurrences.
“The FAA is concerned any time an air carrier is involved in an accident or incident,” the agency said in a statement. “In situations where there may be several incidents involving a single carrier over a short period of time, FAA inspectors increase their oversight, which we’re doing now, and conduct a review of those events to determine whether they might be indicative of a larger issue.”
Source – Financial News USA
By: Arabella-Cox - 4th January 2010 at 16:56
I do not believe that to be “standard” any more. Most U.S. airlines of which I am aware swap each leg, unless you are talking long haul/augmented crews or special/really bad weather situations. Normal operating practice in lieu of those two events is for the F/O to fly every other leg.
AA does seem to be in the middle of a bad run right now. Kind of ironic considering the somewhat extreme salary demands their pilots have been making for the last year or two….perhaps they have taken their eye off the ball?
Yeah, I think that they should tread lightly with their salary demands (no good sinking your own ship, huh?), as for the accidents, I suppose it is best to wait and see what the review comes up with. 🙂
By: Ship 741 - 4th January 2010 at 13:47
I know that in the past in the USA the captain usually did all the landings. FOs were lucky to get a landing. That meant that when a FO got command, he did not have a lot of experience at landing. Is this still the case?
I do not believe that to be “standard” any more. Most U.S. airlines of which I am aware swap each leg, unless you are talking long haul/augmented crews or special/really bad weather situations. Normal operating practice in lieu of those two events is for the F/O to fly every other leg.
AA does seem to be in the middle of a bad run right now. Kind of ironic considering the somewhat extreme salary demands their pilots have been making for the last year or two….perhaps they have taken their eye off the ball?
By: Arabella-Cox - 4th January 2010 at 09:01
I don’t know, but it would explain a lot.
By: Arabella-Cox - 3rd January 2010 at 16:20
I know that in the past in the USA the captain usually did all the landings. FOs were lucky to get a landing. That meant that when a FO got command, he did not have a lot of experience at landing. Is this still the case?
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January 3, 2010 at 6:02 am