Dozens of Pilots Want American to Ground A300. .By John Crawley
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Dozens of pilots at American Airlines want the carrier to ground its fleet of Airbus A300s, saying too many unresolved safety questions have been raised since one of the airliners crashed in New York in November.
"Are we completely comfortable putting our friends and family on an A300? If the answer to that question is not a resounding yes, then logic would lead a well-trained pilot to conclude that no one should be flying on them either,'' according to a recent open letter initially signed by a dozen American A300 pilots in New York, Boston and Miami.
About 60 pilots have signed the letter, which was also circulated to other crew members.
American, a unit of AMR Corp. has about 400 pilots who fly the carrier's 34 wide-body A300s, the company said.
The airline and Airbus SAS said on Thursday there were no plans to ground the fleet, stressing that safety officials investigating the crash of Flight 587 have found no reason to do so.
That plane, An A300-600 crashed shortly after takeoff from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, killing all 260 aboard and five people on the ground.
Investigators are looking at a possible mechanical problem, a structural defect with the composite materials that make up the aircraft's tail fin, or actions by the crew to explain the disaster.
No other U.S. commercial carrier other than American offers A300 service, but cargo airlines Fedex Corp. and United Parcel Service operate them.
The letter was not linked to the pilots union at American, the Allied Pilots Association. In fact, the union said it did not back the demand.
"We are not advocating a grounding of the A300 fleet at this point,'' spokesman Gregg Overman said.
The pilots who signed the letter are unhappy that investigators, the manufacturer and the airline have yet to develop a clear idea of why the jetliner's tail fin, or vertical stabilizer, and rudder fell off before the A300 crashed into a residential neighborhood.
"At this point, safety experts and our own safety and fleet people have agreed that no test exists to definitively check the structural integrity of the vertical stabilizers on our remaining 34 aircraft,'' the letter said.
After the crash, the Federal Aviation Administration (news - web sites) ordered American and the cargo carriers to conduct visual checks of the A300 tail section. All reported no safety problems.
Aside from the focus on the carbon-reinforced plastic composites that make up the thick tail fin, investigators are looking closely at three sharp, unexplained rudder deflections just before the plane crashed.
It has not been determined whether these rudder movements were commanded by the crew, or if there was a glitch in the Airbus systems associated with the flight control components.
The safety board is looking into a handful of flight control mishaps over the past several years involving the A300. One involved the ill-fated American jet in 1994.
Investigators confirmed on Thursday they were examining a report that an uncommanded rudder movement prompted the pilot of an American A300 to return to Caracas, Venezuela, shortly after takeoff on Jan. 17. That plane was bound for Miami.