ASA engine check grounds flights

Apr 02, 2009 (Chattanooga Times Free Press - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- ASOU | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Some Atlantic Southeast Airlines flights may be grounded again today at Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport after one-third were canceled Wednesday due to safety concerns, officials said.

Airport travelers booked on an early morning flight canceled Wednesday were met by a bus, which transported them to Atlanta to make their connections. All ASA flights from Chattanooga go to Atlanta.

ASA spokeswoman Kate Modolo said if the 6 a.m. departure was scratched again today, it was likely a bus would be used move the passengers to Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

Otherwise, the safety inspections that grounded over half of ASA's 50-seat jets systemwide were expected to be finished by mid-day today, Ms. Modolo said.

She said the airline's reservation system was trying to contact customers on affected flights to book them on the next plane out.

Ms. Modolo said she didn't know if travelers received a discount on their ticket price if they took the bus.

"With a cancellation, they can request a refund," she said.

Three of the nine ASA flights at the airport Wednesday were nixed, said Lovell Field spokeswoman Christina Siebold. She said the airline did "a good job" of taking care of passengers whose flights were canceled, sometimes putting them on different airlines.

ASA passengers at the airport generally took the cancellations in stride.

Rob Foley of New York, who was in Chattanooga on business, said airline workers told him his flight was canceled due to maintenance. He said ASA booked him on a flight to Atlanta that was to leave about an hour later than scheduled.

"My wife will be mad at me," he said. "She said 'You going to be home early?' I said I thought I would be.'"

Another passenger, James Condela, also of New York, said he'd rather fly on a safe plane, but he thought the airline should have planned ahead. Still, he said a one-hour delay in a flight is "pretty typical" when it comes to air travel.

ASA announced it had grounded much its fleet Wednesday for engine safety inspections.

A paperwork audit raised questions about whether the engines on ASA's Bombardier CRJ200 jets had been properly inspected according to the guidelines provided by the engines' manufacturer, Ms. Modolo said.

The company reported the problem itself to the Federal Aviation Administration and grounded the planes so they could be re-inspected as a precautionary measure, she said.

Some of the planes were being inspected at the airline's hub, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the world's busiest. Other were scattered around ASA's other maintenance facilities.

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