American cancels about 300 Boeing MD-80 flights

FORT WORTH, Texas — American Airlines canceled about 300 flights today to do safety inspections of some wiring aboard its Boeing MD-80 aircraft.

The canceled flights represent about 13 percent of the estimated 2,300 flights that the nation's biggest airline had scheduled for the day About half the flight cancellations were at the airline's hubs at Dallas-Fort Worth and Chicago O'Hare airports. The rest of the cancellations were scattered across the country, with just a few flight cancellations at Sea-Tac airport. It's unclear if cancellations will continue Thursday.

(Travelers should check their flight status before going to the airport; get Sea-Tac real-time flight information at http://hosting.portseattle.org/fids/ and see www.aa.com for American flights elsewhere).

The need for the new inspections became known during an audit of American by a joint team of inspectors from the Federal Aviation Administration and the airline, according to a statement from American.

The inspection involves proper spacing between two bundles of wires in the plane's auxiliary hydraulic system, said American spokesman Tim Wagner. It must be installed "exactly according to the directive," he said.

Wagner did not have an estimate of how many planes had completed the inspection and returned to service, and he couldn't say whether cancellations would continue into Thursday.

"We are in the process of completing the inspections on the remaining airplanes and will return them to service on a rolling basis throughout the day," Wagner said. Earlier today the airline had estimated 200 flights would be cancelled.

The MD-80s have been among the most successful planes in commercial aviation history. Built from 1979 to 1999 mostly by the McDonnell Douglas aviation company, production was ceased two years after the Boeing Co. took over McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Almost 1,200 MD-80s were delivered to U.S. and foreign airlines over its 20 years of production. But in recent years U.S. airlines, including American Airlines which was one of the largest users of McDonnell Douglas aircraft, have been phasing out their older and less fuel-efficient MD-80s.

Today's inspections and cancellations by American follow the FAA's more stringent scrutiny this month of airlines' maintenance inspections. That began in early March after the FAA proposed a fine of $10.2 million against Southwest Airlines for flying 46 jets without required safety inspections for fuselage cracks. However, the FAA also was criticized for not enforcing inspection rules strictly enough.

Kristin Jackson of Seattle Times Travel contributed to this report.