US Airways: 7 planes fixed
Problems were found during inspections prompted by a midair incident last week.
US Airways Group Inc. found problems on seven of its Boeing 757 aircraft during inspections prompted by the loss of a wing component from another company plane during a March 22 flight from Orlando to Philadelphia.
US Airways spokesman Phil Gee says the carrier inspected 17 Boeing 757s with wing specifications similar to the damaged jetliner.
Last week, a small part of a 757's wing dislodged and hit a passenger window. Nobody was injured, and the plane landed safely at Philadelphia International Airport.
During the inspections that followed, crews found problems on seven planes. They performed minor repairs before returning them to service.
US Airways, the dominant air carrier in Philadelphia, is also rechecking paperwork on 86 older model 737s to make sure they follow federal rules regulating inspection for fuselage and window cracks.
Meanwhile yesterday, AMR Corp.'s American Airlines and Delta Air Lines Inc. returned to normal flight schedules after completing wiring checks on Boeing Co. MD-80 model jets.
American, the world's largest airline, scrubbed only four of its almost 2,300 daily flights to finish inspecting its 300 MD-80s, spokesman Tim Wagner said. Delta is "running normally" after completing checks on its 117 MD-88s, spokeswoman Betsy Talton said.
Completion of the inspections ended two days of service disruptions. The two carriers canceled at least 734 flights, stranding thousands of passengers, as they worked to comply with a Federal Aviation Administration directive for properly attaching wiring sleeves to the planes.
American had to make repairs on 149 of its MD-80s, while Delta did the same on all of its aircraft. MD-80s make up 46 percent of American's main jet fleet, and MD-88s are about 20 percent of the fleet at Delta, the third-biggest U.S. airline.