American Airlines grounds eight planes after SECOND flight makes emergency landing at JFK with loose seats

• Flight turned around on its way to Miami on Monday

American Airlines has temporarily grounded eight planes to evaluate them after seats became loose on two flights in the last three days - prompting safety regulators to look into the matter.
The airline, whose parent AMR Corp filed for bankruptcy protection in November, is reinspecting eight Boeing Co 757 planes after a row of seats came loose during a Saturday flight and the same thing happened on a different plane on Monday.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is looking into the incidents.
American Airlines spokeswoman Mary Frances Fagan said that an initial internal investigation 'indicated that there could be a possible issue with a certain model of seats and how they fit into the tracking used to secure the seats'.

Faulty flight: A second plane was discovered to have loose seats today after taking off for Miami and was forced to return to JFK. A similar incident happened to a flight en route to Miami from Boston on Saturday

The seats were installed by American Airlines maintenance and maintenance contractors and the issue does not seem to be tied to any one maintenance facility or group, the company said.
On Saturday, a Miami-bound flight took off from Boston when the row of seats became unhinged and slid around the cabin, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing at New York City's JFK Airport.

 

A second plane was discovered to have loose seats on Monday after taking off for Miami and was forced to return to JFK.
Flight 443 left Kennedy at 7.11 am and returned to the gate around an hour later. After a delay of two hours, passengers continued on their journey.
Airline and government officials discouraged speculation that the incidents could be related to labor-management tension at American, which is cutting labor costs and laying off maintenance workers as it tries to turn around under bankruptcy protection.
Last week American accused some pilots of conducting an illegal work slowdown that has led to a spike in delayed and canceled flights. The airline threatened to take the pilots' union to court.
The delays and cancellations have annoyed passengers, but even the hint of mechanical issues could frighten them away and even threaten American's existence, experts said.
'These things can kill an airline,' said George Hobica, founder of travel website airfarewatchdog.com.
'With a delay or cancellation, you're sitting on the ground. (With loose seats) if the plane hits turbulence, people go flying.'

Fright: On Saturday, the Miami-bound flight took off from Boston when the row of seats became unhinged and slid around the cabin, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing at New York City's JFK Airport

Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst in San Francisco, said that if travelers perceive maintenance to be lax, 'passengers will start booking away from American Airlines in droves. This is very serious stuff. You need to get corporate security involved'.
The Allied Pilots Association, which represents American's 10,000 pilots, said the incident could have been a real disaster.
'A row of seats basically became unbolted from the floor. The seats were completely not attached,' said Sam Mayer, a New York-based AA pilot and spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association to The New York Post.
'With turbulence, you have to be cautious. That’s why everyone has to stow everything under the seat to prevent loose objects from flying around the cabin — and you’ve got a whole row of seats unbolted.'
He said that in his 24 years with American, he had never heard of such an incident.
According to Mr Mayer, the passengers alerted the crew after takeoff, but the Boeing 757 was already too far out to return to Logan Airport.
The crew urgently requested an emergency landing at JFK, where a crash-emergency response unit waited for them.
Since the flight had a full tank of fuel, the pilot had to land 'heavy', a dangerous maneuver.
The plane made it safely to JFK at 12:48pm on Saturday morning.
American spokeswoman Mary Frances Fagan said the passengers in the 'wobbly' row were relocated to safer seats.
'A second aircraft was used to continue the flight to Miami,' she said to MailOnline.
'Safety is our top priority. We never have – and never will – compromise the safety and reliability of our fleet.'