AA blames coffee and soda for loose seat debacle

[Super FLUF]

You can't make this stuff up. I guess no other airlines serve coffee and soda. Either that, or their passengers just never spill, and we just have a bunch of clumsy customers.

Waiting for Bruce Hicks to come out and say "the pilots were the last passengers seen sitting in those seats, and they were drinking coffee and soda!"

What a joke.

***


Spilled soda, coffee culprits in American's loose seats


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by JASON WHITELY[/background]
[background=transparent]Bio | Email | Follow: @jasonwhitely[/background][background=transparent]
WFAA[/background][background=transparent]
Posted on October 4, 2012 at 5:13 PM[/background][background=transparent]
Updated today at 8:55 PM[/background]
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DALLAS -- American Airlines said spilled soda and coffee caused a worn mechanism to fail and seats to come unhinged from the floor on some of its Boeing 757 aircraft.

Late Thursday, American said the loose seats causing delays and cancellations this week were not the result of human or mechanical failure, as the airline once suspected.

Instead, the airline discovered that worn pins in the seat lock plunger on these 48 aircraft can get stuck in the unlocked position when coffee, soda or juice are spilled on it, essentially letting a row of seats come unhinged from their tracks in the floor.

American said it is adding additional locking mechanisms to the 5,184 pieces in questions to safely secure these seats on the 48 757s.

The repairs will be made once each aircraft lands, the airline said, and should only take a couple hours to complete.

Still, the company said "some select flights may be delayed or canceled in order to complete this work." All repairs are expected to be made by Saturday.

"We apologize to our customers for any inconvenience this may cause with their travel plans," said Andrea Huguely, American Airlines spokeswoman. "The safety of our customers and people as well as the reliability of our fleet, is always of utmost priority to American."

The FAA released a statement about the repairs Thursday afternoon.

"The FAA is aware of American's decision to conduct further inspections on certain Boeing 757s and concurs with this step," the statement read. Our safety investigation continues and we'll take additional action as appropriate."
E-mail jwhitely@wfaa.com

 

[mike7863]

omg is our management getting dumber by the minute, sorry dumb question there.

 

[Mach85ER]

Fluf, did you see the poster on our board of the guy who noted that one plane came out of maintenance on WED and lost seats 4 days later on Sunday?

Soft Drinks and Starbucks made the seats go flyin'? Must have be "Alien" blood to dissolve metal.

They need to file a TRO to keep the current management out of Centreport.

 

[DNTULSA]

Fluf, did you see the poster on our board of the guy who noted that one plane came out of maintenance on WED and lost seats 4 days later on Sunday?

Soft Drinks and Starbucks made the seats go flyin'? Must have be "Alien" blood to dissolve metal.

They need to file a TRO to keep the current management out of Centreport.

It must be nice to be in upper management.

If worst comes to worst, they will simply float away on their golden parachutes.

There ain't a hell hot enough for them.

 

[Mach85ER]

I must have missed the immediate attention bulletin anouncing immediate cessation of soda and coffee service inflight due to the safety hazard.

1. One does exist in the interest of flight safety

2. It doesn't exist because we lied to the customers and the public about the reason for the seat problem,

Any deniers of #2 above?

 

[BigMac]

Back in the day I cleaned a lot of seat tracks. I did this for several years. Every once in awhile there would be solidified soda or coffee, M&M's etc. Had guys following checking he tracks with mirrors, flashlights and whatnot then QA came thru with mirrors, flashlights and whatnot. If there were any areas that weren't up to par then I cleaned it again. When I was done I signed a task card. QA would recheck it and either sign the task card or red card it if it was done wrong. To me many fail safes were in place. All done safely and per the regs.

 

[TWU informer]

I never knew that only 757 Aircraft that have been to TIMCO were the only aircraft that have spilled coffee and soda into the seat track area.

I would have never guessed that in a million years.

Were the TIMCO employees drinking coffee and soda while doing the repitch?

 

[bravozulu@afw]

NOTE: FROM "MORE ROOM IN COACH" Mod Line Crew Member--


We the newly up-graded, did NOT clean seat tracks, or seat 'feet', at first. We did NOT get training on how to remove/ install seats! QA went MAD when they were called to validate a task card. I do recall QA & Crew Chiefs having alot meetings, outside the hangar door. Eventually, we learned how to remove a seat, and its associated Power Port cables, SLIDE the remaining seats to their NEW location AFTER FIRST cleaning the 'TRAX SNAX' from the feet & the track. QA would ALWAYS use ample 'HIP MOTION' on the seats to insure their security. The track HAD to be CLEAN prior to installing the new TRACK COVERS! Oh, those were the days!

I wonder what these 'Out Sourced' company mechs have learned? What has AMR Centerpork learned about OUT SOURCING?

 

[Super FLUF]

Saw this on the APA website



Staff Writer: Market Airline Business Watch 5th October 2012

American Airlines threatened to file for injunctive relief this afternoon in the Federal District Court, Northern District of Texas. In a bold and unique move, American Airlines identified their entire passenger base as participating in a coordinated and deliberate campaign of spillage, targeting the airline in key markets in order to cause disruptions in service and leverage the company into extending frequent flyer mileage programs beyond the end of 2012. American has stated the flying public has been pouring soda and coffee in strategic places throughout their aircraft in order to cause rows of seats to come loose and shift in flight.

Company spokesman Bruce Hicks solemnly declared the reluctance on the part of the corporation to purse this avenue, but the spillage campaign is beginning to effect the schedule and has the potential to impact the upcoming holiday travel season. In a statement for the press, Hicks stated "the company truly regrets and wants to avoid taking legal action however, we want to make it clear we still maintain that a consensual deal, in which our passengers concede their accumulated miles, is still in the best interest of the flying public and our company."

In interviews conducted throughout the AA system today, passengers steadfastly denied any organized campaign to spill soda or coffee. Many passengers accused the pilots of deliberately feigning turbulent conditions during key portions of the service to cause excessive sloshing of beverages throughout the cabin. When confronted by these assertions, Mr Hicks responded that it's never too late to expand the suit and it sounded entirely feasible the pilots could be operating in conjunction with the disgruntled frequent flyers. If so, the company would spare no effort to include the pilots in their pursuit of injunctive relief.

This is a fast moving story, and we plan to keep you informed as events occur. At this time, there has been no indication from American Airlines as to the specific remedy they seek, although it's been rumored they will petition the court to ban all passengers from flying on American Airlines. When asked as to the feasibility of such a remedy, Mr Hicks stated while it was sure to have a devastating effect on the corporations bottom line, one should never underestimate the company's ability to absorb pain when asserting their rights to do whatever they want, when they want.