ASA Grounds regional jets

[News Shooter]

Regional carrier ASA grounds jets for inspections


ATLANTA (AP) -- Atlantic Southeast Airlines, a major regional carrier for Delta Air Lines Inc., said Tuesday it has grounded 60 of its 110 50-passenger jets after an internal audit raised safety concerns.
The groundings were expected to cause some flight delays for passengers flying ASA. It could take 36 to 42 hours to complete the inspections, company spokeswoman Kate Modolo said.
The paperwork audit raised questions about whether the engines on Bombardier CRJ200 jets had been properly inspected according to the guidelines provided by the engines' manufacturer, Modolo said.
The company reported the problem itself to the Federal Aviation Administration and grounded the planes so they could re-inspected as a precautionary measure, she said.
Some of the planes were being inspected at the airline's hub, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the world's busiest. Other were scattered around ASA's other maintenance facilities.
The Atlanta-based airline, owned by SkyWest, Inc., serves about 110 markets and flies 150 planes, including 110 of the affected CRJ200s.
The number of flights affected and the length of any delays Tuesday and beyond weren't immediately known. Additional planes were being flown to some markets and passengers were being accommodated.
---

[st7860]

Airline grounds 60 jets for safety inspections - CNN.com (http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/04/01/jets.grounded/index.html)
Atlantic Southeast Airlines has grounded 60 jets to conduct engine safety inspections, a spokeswoman said Wednesday.
After an internal audit, the airline informed the Federal Aviation Administration that it was voluntarily grounding the planes "to ensure compliance with the engine manufacturer's maintenance recommendations," according to a statement from Atlantic Southeast Airlines spokeswoman Kate Modolo.
The re-inspections started Tuesday and the airline hopes to be finished within 36 hours, Modolo said.
Atlantic Southeast Airlines (http://topics.cnn.com/topics/Atlantic_Southeast_Airlines_Inc) is an Atlanta, Georgia-based company that partners with Delta Airlines.
The re-inspections will cause some flights to be canceled and the airline is working with Delta to get customers on different flights, Modolo said.
"While safety remains our No. 1 priority, we sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this may cause some customers," Modolo said in the statement. "Impacted passengers are being contacted and reaccommodated on the next available flights and extra flights using other aircraft are being added in some markets."
The affected planes are all CRJ200 Bombardier (http://topics.cnn.com/topics/Bombardier_Inc) jets, which seat 50 people.

[manrow]

Is the FAA still active in monitoring airlines standards? Or is it now all 'after the event', with accident investigation?

[News Shooter]

The FAA is supposed to be pro-active in monitoring maintenance and standards, but they are spread pretty thin and a lot of stuff gets by. It's pretty impressive actually that the US has only had one fatal commercial accident in over two years.

The National Transportation Safety Board is responsible for accident investigation. The two agencies often come into conflict

[manrow]

I take your points News Shooter, but that doesn't entirely answer my questions!

[News Shooter]

Sorry, I guess I'm a little thick, I thought I did. The FAA monitors the airlines in terms of standards and practices, certification, pilot licensing, etc. They also oversee aircraft certification and ATC practices. They have virtually little or no role in accident investigation which is exclusively the domain of the NTSB.

Hope that's better:)

Edited to add that the FAA is not frozen out of crash investigation, it is just not their primary function.

[singpilot]

Having been a CP and DirOps myself, I remember one of the best DirMaint's I ever had used to have a saying.....

"A little self-disclosure is good for the soul every once in a while"........

[lomapaseo]

"A little self-disclosure is good for the soul every once in a while"........

I prefer to see the airlines and manufacturers catch all their mistakes without having to rely on the FAA.

I like the idea of the FAA looking after the process by which folks identify and correct their own mistakes.

So yea the process that allowed these mistakes was probably a little weak but hopefully that's being corrected as well since the problem is certainly costing a great deal of money to correct in the next few days.

[Huck]

From those that were famous for this awhile back. (http://www.wafb.com/Global/story.asp?S=8711634)