Sunday, April 11, 2010

Frontier Airlines fined over emergency exit issue

by B. N. Sullivan

Frontier AirlinesThe U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has proposed a $380,000 civil penalty against Frontier Airlines for a slip-up that followed reconfiguration of the passenger cabins of some of the airline's planes. According to the FAA press release announcing the proposed fine:
The FAA alleges that in 2008 and 2009, Frontier reconfigured the passenger cabins on some of its Airbus A-318s and -319s, to permit dual-aisle access to the overwing emergency exits. However, the airline did not replace the existing placards with placards showing the new configuration, as required. The placards are in place to tell passengers how to operate the overwing exits. Frontier then operated these aircraft with the wrong placards in place.
The FAA says that Frontier operated the non-compliant aircraft on approximately 900 flights.

The carrier has 30 days to respond to the FAA.