Originally Posted by
bernardd
If a safety authority specifies a spacing for cable ties, then AA is obliged to follow the ruling, not to make up their own, if they want to keep their operator license. What would you have felt if they'd been 1.5" or 2" apart? What is adequate in the long term? How about if a couple fall off? Are you in a position to know what is adequate and what is not?
The more important question is why on earth didn't AA do it right 2 weeks ago? They must have known they were going to get re-checked.
For that matter, why haven't they been progressively fixing these bundles correctly for 18 months since the AD was issued? That's longer than the C-check period for the MD80.
The problem with many of government directives whether it is with the airline industry or any other industry, they (the government), tends to leave what appears many gray areas. If you have ever read through a government RFP you'd understand. I don't if they were vague in the directive to the airlines but obviously something wasn't detailed right in the directive. Even though it has affected AA the most DL canceled about two dozen flights yesterday and AS grounded their whole, albeit small fleet of MD 80s yesterday. That is just my take on it.