12 September 2015

American Uses Ill-Equpped A321

CBS Los Angeles reports that one of the two American Airlines A321-231 flights between LAX and HNL on August 31st, lacked vital safety components for ETOPS over-water flights. The report did not specify which flight had the affected Airbus airliner, but in searching flight data history on FlightRadar24.com for that particular day, we found that N137AA (msn 6647, f/n 869) was used on AAL31 (returned as AAL162) and N124AA (msn 6271, f/n 856) was used on AAL297 (returned as AAL298).

In a related note, all four of American's LAX-HNL flights are now served with A321-231s.

09.13.15 Update
In today's Star*Advertiser report, it lists AAL31 as the flight in question. Which means that N137AA was the ill-equipped A321. After arrival at HNL, it was ferried back to LAX as AAL9964, according to its flight history on FlightRadar24. Also listed in its recent flight history prior to August 31st, was that N137AA was used on routes within the Continental US. The Aviation Herald reports that N137AA was not ETOPS-certified at the time of this flight.

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