Improperly installed clamp blamed for loose seats on American Airlines

By Hugo Martin

Oct. 2, 2012 12 AM PT

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&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;An improperly installed clamp may be the reason why passenger seats on three &amp;lt;runtime:topic id=”PLENT000002”&amp;gt;American Airlines&amp;lt;/runtime:topic&amp;gt; planes have come loose on flights over the past week, the airline said Tuesday.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;The beleaguered airline pointed the blame for its seat problems on a saddle clamp, used in the mechanism that holds the passenger seats to the tracks on the cabin floor on 47 of its 102 &amp;lt;runtime:topic id=”ORCRP017215”&amp;gt;Boeing&amp;lt;/runtime:topic&amp;gt; 757 airplanes.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;The airline said it has completed inspections on 36 of those planes and plans to check the remaining 11 soon. The &amp;lt;runtime:topic id=”ORGOV00000232”&amp;gt;Federal Aviation Administration&amp;lt;/runtime:topic&amp;gt; is also looking into the problem.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;The seat snafus come as American Airlines, whose parent company, AMR, filed for bankruptcy last year, struggles to cut costs and wrap up contract negotiations with its 10,000 pilots.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;All along, American Airlines officials insisted that the loose seats had nothing to do with its labor problems. But over the past two weeks, hundreds of flights had been delayed and canceled, and the carrier has blamed its pilots for submitting maintenance work orders shortly before takeoff.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;The union has insisted that it did not order its members to cause such delays and cancellations.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;(In the video above, Times consumer columnist David Lazarus and travel industry reporter Hugo Martin discuss the latest developments in the story.)&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;ALSO:&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;a href=”http://pixel.nohib.com./business/la-fi-american-airlines-20121002,0,5208452.story”&amp;gt;Delays at American Airlines take a toll on the company, fliers&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;a href=”http://pixel.nohib.com./business/money/la-fi-mo-american-airlines-pilots-20120928,0,6549048.story”&amp;gt;Accusations fly between American Airlines, pilots; no talks on tap&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;a href=”http://pixel.nohib.com./business/money/la-fi-mo-airline-seat-that-slides-20120914,0,5012924.story”&amp;gt;Denver firm designs airline seat that slides&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Follow Hugo Martin on Twitter at &amp;lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/hugomartin”&amp;gt;@hugomartin&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;

Improperly installed clamp blamed for loose seats on American Airlines

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