![]() Plenty of people are rooting for Allegiant, including travelers who chafe at paying high airfares and officials in the out-of-the-way towns and smaller airports that Allegiant serves. ![]() ![]() “We were always a safe airline,” Allegiant’s chief operating officer Jude Bricker told the Associated Press on Sept. The airline submitted it in September, and the FAA accepted it - essentially giving Allegiant a clean bill of health. Instead, the agency required Allegiant to file a plan for addressing the FAA’s findings. But the FAA said nothing it discovered was severe enough to require a fine or other serious enforcement action. The agency found problems with Allegiant’s maintenance paperwork, including a failure to report a mid-flight engine shutdown within a required time frame. Time and again, top executives downplayed concerns and said the airline was no different than others.Īmid the increased scrutiny, the FAA in April launched a three-month review of Allegiant’s maintenance, training and operations programs. A string of emergency landings in recent years prompted websites, TV stations and newspapers, including the Times, to ask questions about the company’s safety record. The company’s MD-80s fail twice as often as those operated by American Airlines and three times as often as those flown by Delta.Īllegiant’s troubles have not gone unnoticed. Allegiant relies most heavily on McDonnell Douglas MD-80s, an aging model retired by all but two other major U.S.But Allegiant doesn’t staff its own mechanics at 107 of the 118 airports it flies to. Experts say planes as old as Allegiant’s require the most rigorous maintenance in the industry. The average age of planes flown by other carriers is 12. Allegiant’s jets are, on average, 22 years old.Eighteen times last year, key parts such as engines, sensors and electronics failed once in flight, got checked out, and then failed again, causing another unexpected landing. After certain systems on Allegiant planes fail, the company repairs them and puts the planes back in service, only to see the same systems fail again.Among them were 15 forced to land by failing engines, nine by overheating tail compartments and six by smoke or the smell of something burning. Forty-two of Allegiant’s 86 planes broke down in mid-flight at least once in 2015.The airline did not dispute the newspaper’s findings, which included: Then they traveled to Las Vegas and met with Allegiant executives for a series of interviews. They interviewed 20 aviation experts, including former federal safety inspectors, aircraft engineers and mechanics. Working through the data, they connected a year’s worth of flight records with documents showing mechanical problems at the 11 largest domestic carriers in the United States, including Allegiant. To create such a comparison, Times reporters built a database of more than 65,000 records from the FAA. Allegiant Air changes course after Times investigation, admits too many planes failed.At Allegiant, a board and business model with roots in ValuJet.When Allegiant Air’s planes started failing more and more, the FAA could have cracked down.None of the 77 incidents prompted enforcement action from the Federal Aviation Administration, which doesn’t compare airline breakdown records to look for warning signs. The engine on Stoffel’s plane caught fire during an aborted landing, and the jet dipped suddenly to one side. Jones was on a plane with failing brakes. In 2015, Allegiant jets were forced to make unexpected landings at least 77 times for serious mechanical failures.Ĭozzolino’s flight was interrupted by a leaky hydraulic system. But none of them break down in midair more often than Allegiant.Ī Tampa Bay Times investigation - which included a first-of-its kind analysis of federal aviation records - has found that the budget carrier’s planes are four times as likely to fail during flight as those operated by other major U.S. Pete-Clearwater International Airport.Īll major airlines break down once in awhile. “Now I’m going to die.” FlightAware’s flight tracker shows Lisa Cozzolino’s flight, Allegiant Flight 844, circling the gulf and then returning for an unscheduled landing after taking off in June from St.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |