The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is considering a waiver from United Airlines over issues with the no smoking signs on it’s Airbus A321neo aircraft.
Initial panic was caused this week when the airline revealed that the aircraft type was temporarily grounded with an unspecified issue.
Without further ado, let’s get into it…
FAA: United Waiver Over A321neo No Smoking Sign Issues…
It all started off when certain United Airlines flights, operated by their five Airbus A321neos, were beginning to get delayed due to operational inspections.
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Eventually, it came out that there was an issue with the no smoking signs onboard the aircraft, a non-safety based issue.
The issue in itself is to do with a legal code dubbed as US Code 14 CFR § 25.791(a) which requires that those signs be operable by crew, despite smoking being prohibited on board.
It is understood that the crews were unable to operate the signs, hence why United Airlines applied for a waiver as soon as the Airbus A321neos were temporarily grounded.
As soon as the waiver was in consideration by the FAA, the following statement was released by the airline:
“The FAA has given us permission to keep operating our A321neo aircraft while they evaluate their exemption request”.
“As the FAA noted, this is not a safety of flight issue.”
“Our five A321neos were briefly out of service on Monday while we worked through this issue with the FAA, resulting in a handful of delays but no cancellations as we swapped that flying to other aircraft types in an effort to minimize disruption for our customers”.
Overall: Is This An Issue to Worry About?
Overall, as mentioned by both United Airlines and the FAA, this issue on the Airbus A321neo is nothing to worry about.
It appears to be some form of legal element that prevented the aircraft from operating on a commercial basis for a short period of time.
All eyes will be on the outcome of the waiver, which is expected to be approved in due course, as the airline has made these applications on other aircraft types in the past.
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