Washington
CNN
—
Airline regulators on Monday proposed slapping United Airlines with a $1.15 million fine for safety concerns about how it operated some 777 planes.
United removed an important safety measure — checking the fire warning system — from its list of actions that crews must complete before each flight of the 777s, the Federal Aviation Administration said Monday. The airline failed to make the fire-warning checks between June 2018 and April 2021, according to the agency.
“The inspection is required in the maintenance specifications manual” of the Boeing-made 777s, the FAA said in a statement. “Removal of the check resulted in United’s failure to perform the required check and the operation of aircraft that did not meet airworthiness requirements.”
An official familiar with the matter said the fire-system check was dropped when United consolidated its procedures for the 777 and 787. A 787 computer performs the check automatically, the official said.
United did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A $1.1 million fine would be a pittance for a major airline like United, which had $7.2 billion in cash on its balance sheet at the end of last year — enough to pay the fine 6,500 times over. United returned to profitability after two years of deep losses caused by the pandemic.
