American Airlines CEO perplexed by crash

An aerial view of the crash scene of American Airlines Flight 587.

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The head of American Airlines said Monday he is "surprised and confused" about what could have caused the tail section to break off one of the carrier's jets and crash into a Queens, New York, neighborhood.

The airline does not believe that the jet's encounter with severe turbulence back in 1994 could have caused structural damage that went undetected and contributed to last week's crash of American Airlines flight 587, said Donald Carty, chairman and CEO of American.

"We don't think they are related," Carty said on CNN's "Larry King Live." The plane, an Airbus A300-600, had undergone a comprehensive maintenance examination since the earlier incident, he said.

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Carty also said the airline's fleet of Airbus A300s has flown more than 1.5 million miles with a "very good" safety record.

All 260 people aboard the jet were killed, as were five people on the ground. The plane crashed November 12, minutes after taking off from John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Some theorize that flight 587 could have been caught in "wake turbulence" from a much larger Japan Air Lines 747 that took off just before the doomed aircraft. American Airlines officials have learned of a similar incident involving two military planes. The engines came off one aircraft, just as they did from flight 587.

Fleet inspections

The airline began voluntary inspections last Wednesday after the crash, which took place in the Rockaway community in Queens. The vertical tail and rudder snapped off during flight.

Separately, the Federal Aviation Administration and French aviation authorities Friday ordered the inspections of all Airbus A300s and A310s, giving companies 15 days to check attachment fittings on the tails and rudders for loose fasteners, distorted surfaces and cracks and corrosion.

American said all 34 of its Airbus A300s were checked by "specialized teams" that included mechanics, engineers, production supervisors and technical crew chiefs.

"An inspection of the entire fleet of A300s found no problem with the tail section of the aircraft," American said.

Bad news, encouraging signs

American is the only U.S.-based passenger airline to use the Airbus A300. Federal Express and UPS also use the plane in their fleets.

American has experienced what Carty termed "one piece of bad news after another," starting with the September 11 terrorist attacks, in which two of the four planes commandeered by hijackers belonged to the airline. The attacks grounded commercial aviation for days, and a plunge in air travel forced American and its competitors to cut flights and lay off employees.

Combined with the New York crash, 36 American Airlines employees have been killed, and the carrier has trimmed more than 12,000 jobs, he said.

Despite the losses, traffic for the busy Thanksgiving holiday travel period appears strong, with heavy bookings Wednesday, Sunday and Monday, November 26, Carty said.

"The airline industry doesn't have as many seats out there as they had a year ago, but what's out there is full," he said.