Travelers love taking advantage of cheap airplane tickets and cheap vacation packages. However, no one wants to fly on a plane that is possibly not safe. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has come out with a rule to prevent widespread fatigue damage by requiring aircraft manufacturers and airlines to determine the number of takeoff and landing cycles or the number of hours a plane can operate without risk of fatigue damage.
Once a plane reaches that limit it will not be allowed in the air again unless the FAA issues an extension. Every flight that a plane makes places stress to its structure. Over time flight fatigue can result in cracks, which left untreated can expand and connect.
Widespread fatigue damage (WFD) is increasingly likely as a plane ages and will occur if a plane is flown long enough, according to the FAA. Existing inspections are not able to reliably detect WFD because cracks are so small at first, but may link up and grow so quickly that the affected plane fails before an FAA inspection is performed to detect the cracks.
American Airlines has come out against the FAAs new directive arguing the rule was not justified in terms of safetyWe already have some very good plans that are approved by the FAA that address this issue. Aircraft manufacturer Boeing has supported this new rule.
Americans fleet is 14.5 years old on average, according to American Airlines, and getting younger as it adds new Boeing 737-800s and retires old MD 80s. Deltas fleet average age is also 14.5 years whereas Uniteds is 14.3 years.
The FAA is providing airlines and manufacturers up to 60 months to come up with time to recommend service limits for their aircraft.
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