According to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) data American Airlines (AA) has been experiencing in-flight engine shutdowns far more than other domestic airlines. A pilots’ union notes that the AA “engine incident rate is 15 percent higher than our nearest competitor, Delta.”
The Allied Pilots Association (APA), which represents American Airline pilots noted that, “Historically, AA typically recorded fewer than 10 engine failures/in-flight shutdowns per year. However, in 2008, that rate jumped to 24. Now already in 2009, we’ve already had 12 engine events, including one this week on a DCA-bound 737 that ended up in an emergency diversion to IAD.”
The union has been in discussions with American Airlines about this “disturbing safety trend” for the past year. They note that in spite of assurances by management that these engine shutdown problems would be corrected, the trend has yet to be reversed. If in-flight engine shutdowns continue at the current pace, 2009 will break last year’s unenviable record.
The APA release intimated that costs savings are the driving force rather than passenger (and pilot) safety.
Recent incidents such as the Hudson River landing, the upstate New York crash and the Air France crash are all shining a spotlight on airline safety. Management should be prohibited from cutting corners on any safety element — including the cost of maintenance or experienced pilots. One tragic accident more than wipes out all the incremental little cost savings gained from unrestrained cuts in areas of safety.
Let’s hope that American Airlines figures out why their jet engines are unexpectedly shutting down during scheduled flights with load factors in the 80 percent range. Something is out of whack with the current engine maintenance even though it is done in-house by AA.
There were a flurry of newspaper articles about inflight engine failures right after the Miracle on the Hudson, but the spotlight on airline safety was turned off until last week’s Air France disaster.
At the time, quoted in the Wall Street Journal, a spokesman for American Airlines, a unit of AMR Corp., said the carrier was investigating and intended to get to the bottom of the engine shutdown incidents, but he declined to comment on specific maintenance issues. “We don’t typically get into individual maintenance history” of airplanes involved in such incidents, he said.
Since then, engine shutdown events have continued according to federal records. Averaged over the last eight months, American Airlines has had planes experience three engine failures per month — far more than any other domestic airline.
During that eight-month period, FAA records showed American had 23 failures, Delta had 17, United 15, US Airways 10, Continental 10, Southwest seven and Northwest seven.
Pilots have told me that having an engine shutdown is one of the most disturbing emergency events they face. The plane is designed to fly on only one engine, but it unnerves pilots, nonetheless, to have an engine suddenly stop during flight.
Fortunately for the airlines, passengers rarely know if there has been an engine shutdown event unless they are forced to land at an alternate airport. However, I’ll bet dollars to donuts that the flying public would register more concern if they knew the truth about the frequency of these engine shutdown events.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
My dad was a career aviation mechanic from B-17s through today’s commercial aircraft. Over 20 of his 33 year career with AA was in their jet shop at LAX responsible for repairing jumbo jet engines.
Dad’s greatest fear was that when times got tough financially that the least “obvious” cutback to passengers would be maintenance. He feared that cutting service or other issues more directly affecting the flying public’s perception of AA would be a less desirable option for AA…at least in the short term!
Even this alarming rate of engine shutdowns isn’t as visible unless the public becomes aware of them. Hopefully AA gets this message loud & clear to not cutback on maintenance. The right thing for AA’s survival is to reliably maintain their aircraft before they attract the world’s attention with a catastrophic loss of lives in a crash!!!
Having a career as a pilot (not with AA), I have always subscribed to the philosophy that for the most part an aircraft will fly safely with a semi-competent pilot but NEVER with anything other than the best maintenance.
Partially out of loyalty, AA remains my 1st choice for travel because of how rigidly dad said they maintained their aircraft. However with so many engine problems it appears that AA is living my dad’s worst nightmare…a cutback in maintenance!
Maybe it’s time to re-evaluate my loyalty to AA for my safety & for the safety of my family?
During my 16 years at AA safety was ALWAYS the first concern and that period continued the operating credo which was created at the inception of that fine company. Does anyone really think that an airline company would institute policy/procedure which would circumvent such a policy for the sake of a small percentage of operating cost? Consider first that the APA is in the middle of negotiations for their contract and have traditionally shown a willingness to disparage their company in an way that they can. Then consider that AA is the largest air carrier in the world and they number of shutdowns is related to the greater number of segments. Lastly consider that the quality of parts may be changing, although these, like the maintenance frequency and procedures are mandated and monitored by the FAA.
Bottom line, the car ride to the airport is still the most dangerous part of the trip and American Airlines is the pre-eminent airline in the world for quality, routes, price and service.