American flies wrong plane to Hawaii

For years American Airlines has flown 757 and 767 aircraft between Los Angeles and Hawaii. They recently began replacing them with A321 aircraft, and have plans to use the aircraft to go to the Big Island and Maui as well.

On August 31st, the flight from LA was operated by N137AA, and was operating normally. Some time after passing the point of no return the crew made an..... Interesting discovery. Everyone, from the dispatcher, to the ground crew, to the pilots, failed to notice that N137AA wasn't ETOPS certified.

For an over water flight, a twin engine aircraft has to be certified to meet several conditions. While the A321 is certified, this particular aircraft has not been verified to fly over water.

There really wasn't any kind of increased danger by them using the wrong aircraft, as aircraft have become so reliable, but this is a huge mistake to make. The flight back to LA had to be canceled and the aircraft returned as an empty ferry flight.

onemileatatime.boardingarea.com...

originally posted by: Zaphod58
For years American Airlines has flown 757 and 767 aircraft between Los Angeles and Hawaii. They recently began replacing them with A321 aircraft, and have plans to use the aircraft to go to the Big Island and Maui as well.

On August 31st, the flight from LA was operated by N137AA, and was operating normally. Some time after passing the point of no return the crew made an..... Interesting discovery. Everyone, from the dispatcher, to the ground crew, to the pilots, failed to notice that N137AA wasn't ETOPS certified.

For an over water flight, a twin engine aircraft has to be certified to meet several conditions. While the A321 is certified, this particular aircraft has not been verified to fly over water.

There really wasn't any kind of increased danger by them using the wrong aircraft, as aircraft have become so reliable, but this is a huge mistake to make. The flight back to LA had to be canceled and the aircraft returned as an empty ferry flight.

onemileatatime.boardingarea.com...

Some red faces, I'd imagine, but thank goodness there were no real safety issues.

originally posted by: Zaphod58

For an over water flight, a twin engine aircraft has to be certified to meet several conditions. While the A321 is certified, this particular aircraft has not been verified to fly over water.

There really wasn't any kind of increased danger by them using the wrong aircraft, as aircraft have become so reliable,

I wouldn't be so bold as to claim this.

Given that aircraft are certainly very reliable, ETOPS requirements cover 2 aspects of potential failre:

1/ increased reliability and/or system redundancy provisions for the aircraft itself; and
2/ operating prcedures that the airline has in place to ensure those provisions are correctly used if required.

For example a normal ETOPS provision is that hte APU (auxiliary power unit) is start-able in flight in case of engine failure. This provides a backup source for electrical and sometimes also air and hydraulic systems.

The A321 certainly has that capability - but if the airline has not added the provision in its operating manuals then it would not be used. And even if it is in there for non-ETOPS the reliability of doing so might not be established fot that operator - for example their master equipment list may allow operations with an serviceable APU - something that would never be allowed on ETOPS - if the APU was unserviceable it would have to be fixed for an ETOPS flight or another aircraft used.

The odds are small......but they do exist.

a reply to: Aloysius the Gaul

Yes, there was a very small chance of something happening, but small enough as to be almost non-existent, or as close as it can be made.

U S pilots would be aware from simulator talk....I wonder about the others, I swear there's a disconnect
also if it's not a Boeing...I'll just friggin drive.I wonder who made the dead head call.....I mean nuts and bolts of it ....a special clearance or rubber stamp.....

I was looking at this. Apparently in addition to the enhanced MRO requirements they also have to carry extra oxygen onboard which I did not know.