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United becomes latest to ground planes
52 Boeing 777s grounded until tests completed; delays, cancellations possible
By Steve Goldstein, MarketWatch
Last update: 7:09 a.m. EDT April 2, 2008
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LONDON (MarketWatch) -- United Airlines on Wednesday became the latest airline to ground planes, saying it won't fly 52 Boeing 777s until safety tests are completed.
The unit of UAL Corp. (UAUA:23.13, +1.60, +7.4%) said it discovered that a routine pre-flight safety check, a test on the firing systems on one of the "bottles" in the cargo fire suppression system, was not performed.
United said it voluntarily disclosed that to the Federal Aviation Administration and is grounding that aircraft until the tests are completed.
There may be delays and cancellations on Wednesday, United said.
United joins Southwest Airlines (LUV:12.75, +0.35, +2.8%) , American Airlines (AMR:9.85, +0.83, +9.2%) and Delta Air Lines (DAL:9.14, +0.54, +6.3%) in having to ground aircraft to perform safety tests.
Steve Goldstein is MarketWatch's London bureau chief.

 

Awesome. Next all 757 because one of the suppliers that our outsourced maintenance uses had bad parts for our landing gear. From what I understand it may not be a big deal, but it may go industry wide as well.
What a way to make money. Guess who will pay for this?

 

Back when these FAA inspections started, I saw on the nightly news where UAL grounded their 747s for some type of problem with the equipment that calibrates altimeters. Apparently the FAA found a problem with the equipment and made UAL recertify altimeters on their 747s.

-Fatty

 

Ok i wonder what will be grounded next!geeeeesssssss

 

Yes, that was an FAA "certified" maintenance station that employed non-UAL employees (aka outsourced maintenance).

 

Ouch !!! Stupid question, do air carriers who outsource maitenance perform random inspections or do they leave it up to the FAA?

-Fatty

 

FWIW... supposedly the inspections were not listed in the BOEING MX manual.
So UAL did not list them on the job cards for the MX people to inspect them.

 

All airlines grounded until fuel retreats to below $70/barrel....

 

Could the problem be they were printed in English?