How American Airlines flew the wrong A321 to Hawaii

[flee 5]

American Airlines is revising internal procedures after it mistakenly flew an Airbus A321 without proper long-range overwater certification from Los Angeles to Honolulu last month, an airline spokesman told briansumers.com.

Twin-engine aircraft operating from the West Coast to Hawaii fly over the Pacific Ocean for nearly the entire flight, and as a result, they are required to carry more safety equipment than other planes, including oxygen tanks and a special fire suppression system in the cargo hold. With the special systems, these aircraft are certified to fly on one engine for as long as three hours. That is enough time to reach an alternate airport. The certification is called ETOPS.

Full report:

http://www.briansumers.com/home/2015/9/11/how-american-airlines-flew-the-wrong-a321-to-hawaii

Edited September 12, 2015 by flee

[Suzanne Goh 0]

oops! I flew this route on the AA A321 a few days before the incident on the 23rd and 25th of August - it's 5:25 westbound from LAX and 5:00 eastbound back to LAX - not something you wanna mess about with regulations..

[Kenneth Chong WT 0]

Wonder if AK also uses non-ETOPS planes on ETOPS routes sometimes too....

[flee 5]

Wonder if AK also uses non-ETOPS planes on ETOPS routes sometimes too....

If I am not mistaken, the only AK routes that require ETOPS are those to India - we have not received reports of mix ups in aircraft deployment so far...