Rain Deflector....?
Nov 16, 2008, 7:49 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2001
Posts: 111
Rain Deflector....?
Just sharing...
My LAS to STL flight was pulled back into the gate when the ground crew noticed something wrong with the landing gear. They had one bad tire, and planned to change them both - should be done in 45 minutes.
After about 2 hours they told us we were switching planes. While we waited for our new plane to be unloaded, the DFW passengers boarded our old "damaged" plane.
I asked why it was safe to fly to DFW on that plane but not STL.
A passenger said that the rain deflector was damaged, and since it was not raining in DFW we swapped planes. I'm not sure where he got his info, perhaps he was an A&P.
Since no one from AA told the other passengers what was going on and it caused a bit of commotion when we watched our "bad" plane back out of the gate before we did.
My LAS to STL flight was pulled back into the gate when the ground crew noticed something wrong with the landing gear. They had one bad tire, and planned to change them both - should be done in 45 minutes.
After about 2 hours they told us we were switching planes. While we waited for our new plane to be unloaded, the DFW passengers boarded our old "damaged" plane.
I asked why it was safe to fly to DFW on that plane but not STL.
A passenger said that the rain deflector was damaged, and since it was not raining in DFW we swapped planes. I'm not sure where he got his info, perhaps he was an A&P.
Since no one from AA told the other passengers what was going on and it caused a bit of commotion when we watched our "bad" plane back out of the gate before we did.
Nov 16, 2008, 8:33 pm
#2
Suspended
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: NYC
Programs: AA PLT
Posts: 1,615
Poor communication at the very least.
Nov 16, 2008, 8:38 pm
#3
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2001
Location: LAX; AA EXP, MM; HH Gold
Posts: 31,789
Dunno about the veracity of the story, but in the link below you can see the front gear rain deflector; it's the attachment behind the front tires:
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Image:Am...flight_577.jpg
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Image:Am...flight_577.jpg
Nov 17, 2008, 5:43 am
#4
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: ATX
Programs: AA LT PLT, Marriott LT PLT
Posts: 277
I've been curious about those - does anyone know what the devices do? My guess is that they prevent displaced water from being directed towards the engines on takeoff/landing roll.
Nov 17, 2008, 4:57 pm
#6
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2004
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Posts: 21,422