United grounds all Boeing 777s, cancels dozens of flights
— -- The disruption was at least the fourth time in three weeks that a major U.S. airline canceled flights to perform government-required safety inspections or maintenance that was not done or was done improperly.
United spokeswoman Jean Medina said United officials late Tuesday discovered the failure to do routine tests on the fire-suppression device in the 777 cargo hold and decided to ground the fleet until the required tests could be completed.
Among the United 777 flights affected Wednesday was a charter carrying the White House press corps and some White House staff who are traveling on President Bush's trip to Eastern Europe. The White House confirmed that the plane was in Bucharest awaiting a test.
The fire-suppression device, a bottle containing oxygen-eliminating gas, is designed to spray the cargo hold if a fire is detected there. A cargo hold fire was blamed for the 1996 crash of a ValuJet DC-9 in the Florida Everglades that killed all 110 people aboard.
Wednesday's 777 tests were supposed to be done by United's mechanics or by a Beijing-based aircraft maintenance company, Ameco, that United pays to do some 777 maintenance. Medina said United failed to tell its mechanics and the Chinese mechanics to conduct the test. United blamed Boeing for omitting the test from its recent 777s manual.
Last month, the Federal Aviation Administration proposed a record $10.2 million fine against Southwest and reassigned two FAA managers after discovering Southwest had flown 46 Boeing 737s without doing mandatory inspections for metal cracks in the fuselage. In extreme cases, fuselage cracks can cause a plane to come apart in midair.
Under pressure from congressional leaders, the FAA last month launched an industrywide review of airline compliance with mandatory safety inspections. As a result of the crackdown, airlines including Southwest, American, Delta and United have grounded planes and canceled hundreds of flights in recent weeks, inconveniencing thousands of passengers, to inspect or test various components as required.
