American Airlines Grounds Planes After Seats Move Mid-Air

So you’re flying along in the big jet, and you get the uneasy feeling that the jet isn’t the only thing moving.

Your seats are too.

American Airlines hopes to stop that from happening again. The company Monday said it plans to temporarily ground eight planes and evaluate them after rows of seats broke loose during two flights in two days.

American’s parent company, AMR Corp, filed for bankrupty protection in November, so it can ill afford to have planes on the ground. And the U.S. Federal Aviations Administration is looking into the incidents. But the seats were installed by the company’s own maintenance and contractors.

But American, like most other airlines, is hurting for money. It started cost cuts for pilots last month and has canceled hundreds of flights because of an increase in pilot maintenance request and sick leaves. And on Sept. 27, American warned its pilots union it was going to take legal action if the union doesn’t make sure the airlines are flying safely.

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