American Airlines will modify 49 of its Boeing 767-300ER jets over the next nine days to make sure that the seats don?t come loose ? as happened on some similar Boeing 757s.
However, the Boeing 767 work will be done when those airplanes are undergoing overnight maintenance work and won?t require flight cancellations or aircraft groundings, airline spokeswoman Andrea Huguely said Friday.
Only a week earlier, American had to cancel 94 seats after three flights involving two different Boeing 757s had seats come loose from their floor moorings. American said the work on 48 Boeing 757s airplanes was completed last Saturday, Oct. 6.
But as the carrier was working on the Boeing 757s, officials realized that the design issues with those airplanes were shared by most of American?s Boeing 767-300ERs, which fly mainly on international routes, Huguely said.
American has had no reports of the Boeing 767 seats popping loose. However, ?we want to take the proactive approach because these are the same devices,? she said.
American maintenance officials had concluded that pistons, or plungers, that were supposed to look the seats into place were not fully deploying or were wiggling out, allowing the seat frames to separate from their floor rails.
Officials blamed grime, such as spilled soft drinks, for fouling up the mechanisms. Their answer was to install hardware that made sure the pistons remained in place.
Huguely said the work won?t require aircraft to be taken out of service, per conversations with the Federal Aviation Administration.
?The FAA has given us permission and approved our plan,? she said, ?and we are able to accomplish this on overnight visits.?
The work will be done by American Airlines employees and should be completed by Sunday, Oct. 21, she said.
American operates 57 of the widebody Boeing 767s. Eight of the airplanes have a different seating design and won?t need the modifications.
Keep reading for the internal message sent to AA managers.
Subject: American Proactively Adds Secondary Locking Device to Seats of Select 767s
Summary:
As a precautionary measure, American is proactively adding a secondary locking device to the seats of 49 Boeing 767s.?
After inspecting our entire aircraft fleet, we have determined that 49 of our 767s have the same primary locking device that was found on 48 of our 757s. There have been no in-flight incidents impacting customers with the seat-locking mechanisms on these 767s.?This added layer of safety involves the same aviation-strength locking device that American installed on some of our 757s.
The FAA has approved our plan, and the installation work is expected to be finished around Oct. 21. We will not need to cancel any flights to accomplish the installation.
Key Points
? The safety and reliability of American?s fleet is of the utmost importance and this is why we are taking these extra steps.?
? After a complete inspection, none of our other fleet types have this same type of primary locking device.
? The work will be conducted by our maintenance teams at our Line Stations, and is expected to be finished around Oct. 21.
? We are working closely with the FAA, which has approved our plan and the secondary locking device that was installed on our 757s and will be installed on these 767s.
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