Airline Says Doomed Plane Wasn’t Repaired
American Eagle was wrong when it said the left engine of a plane that crashed had been repaired hours earlier, the company said Friday.
The American Eagle plane with an engine that would not start Tuesday was in Nashville, Tenn., airline spokesman Tim Kincaid said. It was not the plane that crashed Tuesday night on approach to Raleigh-Durham International Airport, killing 15 people.
The mistake was made because of nearly identical identification numbers between the two Jetstream aircraft, Kincaid said.
The identification number on the plane that crashed was N918AE; the plane that had its engine repaired was N919AE.
American Eagle, through spokesman Marty Heires, told reporters Thursday night that the left engine of the doomed plane had been repaired for a flight from Raleigh to Greensboro, N.C., just before Flight 3379 made the return trip.
Bob Hall, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, announced the mistake at a briefing Friday.
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