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CNN Saturday Morning News

Pilots Call for Grounding of Airbus A-300

Aired January 26, 2002 - 08:33   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: A group of pilots at American Airlines is demanding that a particular airplane, the Airbus A-300, be grounded until there are answers on why one crashed late last year in New York.

CNN's Charles Feldman has that.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

CHARLES FELDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Nothing like this has apparently ever happened in the history of commercial aviation -- a jumbo jet crashes after its tail fin falls off. About 60 pilots who fly the Airbus for American Airlines are supporting a petition asking the plane be grounded until they know what caused this tragedy.

"Are we completely comfortable putting our friends and family on an A-300?" the pilots ask. "If the answer to that question is not a resounding yes, then logic would lead a well trained pilot to conclude that no one else should be flying on them either."

Pilots are particularly concerned about the Airbus A-300 tail, made of carbon fibers glued together to form what's called a composite. American says it has visually examined its 34 other A-300 jets and has not found anything wrong. The human eye cannot see flaws inside the composite material, but ultrasound tests can.

DEBRA CHUNG, COMPOSITES EXPERT: If one just looks from the outside, you can only see defects when they are already very drastic. And that's not what we want. We want to see the defects before they become very dangerous.

FELDMAN: American Airlines declined an on camera interview. In a statement, American says the concerned pilots are "well intentioned" but "lack the scope of information" needed to evaluate the safety of the Airbus.

American says it won't take action against the pilots who organized the petition. But at least one pilot was called in for a disciplinary hearing.

Fifty-six airlines fly the A-300 worldwide, and since the plane is built by a European group, any decision to ground it by a U.S. airline may be a political hot potato. JIM MCKENNA, AVIATION EXPERT: They would argue, rightfully, so that in the past several years we've had major questions, major uncertainty about the causes of crashes involving Boeing 737s, involving Boeing 747s. In none of those instances did anybody seriously entertain the idea of grounding the airplane.

FELDMAN (on camera): More than 2,000 Airbuses fly today with similar tails, and until now their safety record has been excellent. But use of composite materials in jetliners is still relatively new. And no one can be sure yet how much wear and tear they will take.

Charles Feldman, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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