United grounds Boeing 777 fleet, cancels flights
CHICAGO – United Airlines has been forced to cancel flights after grounding its entire fleet of Boeing 777 aircraft for fresh safety checks.
United said that during a regular review of maintenance records it had discovered tests on a fire suppression system had not been thorough enough.
The airline cancelled 31 of its 84 daily 777 flights yesterday and expects more cancellations today as planes are checked and cleared to operate
United has been using other aircraft on the mainly long-haul routes as well as booking passengers onto other airlines.
The US House of Representatives is due to hold a hearing about airline maintenance today.
In recent weeks, American Airlines, Delta, Southwest and US Airways have all been forced to take aircraft out of service because of lapsed maintenance inspections.
The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement that United’s grounded planes were not linked to a clampdown it is currently having on safety inspections, which led to some of the other recent groundings.
Three weeks ago, Southwest Airlines grounded about 44 of its Boeing 737s after a CNN report said the company had continued to fly more than 100 aircraft without certain mandatory safety inspections.
The CNN report, which cited detailed congressional documents, stated that Southwest airplanes flew planes without conducting mandatory checks for fuselage cracking.
Ian Jarrett
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