10 Arrow Planes Grounded Due to Unauthorized Parts
The Federal Aviation Administration temporarily grounded all but two of Arrow Air’s planes Saturday after inspectors discovered “the use of unapproved spare parts in 10 airplanes.”
The Air Force quickly followed suit, saying it has “curtailed” Arrow Air flights “until such time as the result of the ongoing” FAA inspections “are known and reviewed.” Col. Terry Y. Arnold, an Air Force spokesman, said that the Air Force will fly no passengers on Arrow until the FAA inspection is completed and reviewed, although cargo flights could resume as early as this week.
256 Killed in Charter Crash
An Arrow charter crashed in Gander, Newfoundland, last Dec. 12, killing 248 U.S. soldiers and eight crew members. There is no indication as to whether unapproved parts were involved, but little in the way of formal findings has been released by the Canadian investigators, and the cause of the crash is unknown.
That crash has brought the Miami-based airline its third intense FAA inspection in less than two years, and there have been demands from Capitol Hill that the Air Force stop using the airline.
Arrow Air spokesman Robin Mattel called the FAA action “totally incomprehensible, because all airlines, large and small, operating outside the United States, use these same parts.”
He said that the FAA had “previously given us permission to use these parts, which were certified by an FAA-approved repair station in Europe.”
Arrow, Mattel said, “voluntarily agreed” to change the parts as quickly as possible. “We plan to have the parts changed and all planes flying by early next week,” he said. Arrow had to cancel one scheduled flight Saturday, from its hub airport at San Juan to New York, but by nightfall had three planes back in the air.
Arrow holds $20.6 million in cargo and passenger contracts from the Air Force. From Saturday through Tuesday, Arnold said, six scheduled contract Arrow flights were affected. “Four of these flights have been replaced by military aircraft and two others by commercial contract carrier,” he said.
Mattel said that Arrow, whose fleet consists of older aircraft, has 12 airplanes--10 McDonnell Douglas DC-8s of the type that crashed in Gander, and two Boeing 727s.
