United Airlines grounded planes in SF, why was it important?
The United Airlines flights that were grounded in San Francisco are now getting back to normal, says local San Francisco news station ABC 7 News. The fleet of Boeing 757 planes was grounded on Tuesday, including at local SFO International Airport.
The Chicago Tribune had reported on Tuesday: “United is scrambling to comply with a 2004 FAA airworthiness directive that spelled out software and hardware changes for air data computer systems in Boeing 757, 767 and 747 aircraft. 'This action is necessary to ensure that the flightcrew is able to silence an erroneous overspeed or stall aural warning,' the directive stated.”
San Francisco world travelers are learning that United Airlines originally installed the necessary software back in 2004. That software calculates air speed and air pressure and then passes the information along to the cock-pit and autopilot mechanism. It then lets the pilot turn off an alarm that, if set off, would cause the flight crew and passengers to panic needlessly.
To date the mechanism has worked well and not had any problems.
United Airlines made the decision to ground the planes on Tuesday this week until the correction was made, rather than risk having the FAA make the request formally or start imposing fines on the carrier. The airline had seen enough troubles with picketing in January 2011. See photos of that in the slideshow to the left.
The testing was carried out only on United planes, not on Continental's. The two major airlines merged back in October 2010 but for now they operate independently.
This latest incident has several San Francisco passengers wondering about how secure United's maintenance and safety information is.
"It does make me wonder," says San Francisco resident, Alice Sanderson, "But I'm glad they fixed it."
United Flights can be checked at http://www.united.com
See the original story here: United Airlines getting back on track after grounding planes
See photos of United in the slide show to the left
Photos, courtesy Getty Images: LOS ANGELES, CA - JANUARY 07: United Airlines workers, represented by the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO, picket at the United Airlines terminal at Los Angeles International Airport on January 7, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. The protest was part of a world-wide response over the stalled contract negotiations. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
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Sources: ABC 7 News, MSNBC, www.united.com, newser.com
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