American Airlines faces huge fine for safety-related problems in its fleet of MD-80 planes

The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has almost completed a 2-year investigation of safety violations by American Airlines, and the airline is likely to be asked to pay one of the biggest fines in the history of the FAA.

The Associated Press quoted unnamed officials of the FAA as saying that the fine may come to as much as $10.2 million.

In another development, the inspector-general of the United States Department of Transportation is set to release an audit, within the next several days, which criticise the Federal Aviation Administration for “lax oversight” of aircraft maintenance at American Airlines.

The Federal Aviation Administration’s safety-related investigation into American Airlines, based in Fort Worth, Texas, the Unite States, relates to improperly fastened wiring in the 290 MD-80 aircraft in American Airlines’ fleet.

According to the officials of the FAA, the loose fastening led to damage to wiring in dozens of MD-80 planes. In a few cases, there occurred electrical arcing – a discharge of electricity, which poses a potential threat of fire.

Following these safety violations, the Federal Aviation Administration had, in April 2008, temporarily grounded hundreds of aircraft of American Airlines, which is a subsidiary of AMR Corporation – ruining the travel plans of thousands of air passengers.

The officials of the Federal Aviation Administration were quoted as saying that the agency has not yet decided on the amount of the fine to be imposed on American Airlines. However, they added that the fine could come to $10.2 million, which the FAA had proposed against Southwest Airlines, the budget airline based in Dallas, Texas, the United States, in March 2008.

The FAA had proposed the fine of $10.2 million against Southwest Airlines – the biggest fine so far proposed by the agency – for having operated about 60,000 flights on planes which had missed the required tests for structural cracks. Finally, the penalty was settled for $7.5 million, in March 2009.

Lynn Lunsford, a spokesman for the FAA, said the investigation into American Airlines is yet to be complete and hence it would be “premature” to comment on the quantity of penalty that the civil-aviation regulator might propose.

A spokesman for American Airlines said the company was not aware of any fine proposed against it, and stressed that the safety of American Airlines’ planes was “never jeopardised.”

The audit by the inspector-general of the US Department of Transportation pertains to allegations of maintenance-related problems at American Airlines – including aircraft landing-gear, which did not retract properly, as well as windshield-heating systems that were beset with electrical glitches.

According to a spokesman for Allied Pilots Association, which represents American Airlines’ pilots, the association had, in 2008, brought a few of the safety problems to the notice of the inspector-general of the Department of Transportation, after the inspectors of the Federal Aviation Administration did not respond to the union’s complaints.