American Airlines is the biggest airline in the United States since 1991. American Airlines was pioneer in many fields gaining competitive and advantage over the other airlines. American has also pioneered several policies including that affected the industry's structure and standard practices. In the 1960's, American introduced the first computerized reservation system, revolutionizing the marketing and distribution of the travel industry. In 1977, they introduced "the super saver" fares, which was the first program of discounts for leisure travelers and in 1981, they launched the first frequent-flier program.

AMR, the parent company for American Airlines, has a number of businesses within its corporate structure including: American Airlines whose success is rooted in the airline's greatest asset - its people, all 101,706 of them. In the rapidly changing markets where American competes in the United States and abroad, American Eagle which was established in 1984 as American Airlines' regional airline affiliate. The American Eagle network is the largest regional airline system in the world, with over 1,400 flights a day to more than 101 cities throughout the United States, Canada, The Bahamas and the Caribbean. AA Cargo, a division of American Airlines, which provides more than 14 million pounds of daily lift capacity to major cities in Europe, Canada, Mexico the Caribbean, Central and South America, Asia and throughout the United States. Through cooperative interline agreements, AA Cargo can transport shipments to virtually any country in the world.

Flight 587 crashed last November and investigation determined that it was due to mechanical failure, as if September 11th didn't scare the people enough. There were other problems with this Airbus A300 prior to this devastating accident. Earlier in the month, pilots from different flights between Miami and Caracas experienced problems with this A300 Airbus. Pilots complained about oscillations and vibrations associated with the rudder and returned to the departure airport. Investigators determined from the crash that the airplane experienced turbulence before the rudder completely separated from the aircraft. Dozens of pilots have asked for this particular Airbus to be grounded because there is no way adequately to inspect the European-made planes' tails, which are made of a nonmetallic composite material. These thousands of layers of carbon fibers and plastics can separate under excessive force. However, the French manufacturers say that the problems in the tail didn't !

show any severe enough problems to weaken the tail. An American Airlines spokesman said the aircraft had had a maintenance check only the day before the crash. It had its last major overhaul in December 1999 and was scheduled for another in July of 2002. The question here is why was this A300 Airbus returned to service if there were instances prior to this accident that hinted that there is a problem with the aircraft. Mechanical problems raise concerns about the carrier's safety and its maintenance program.

After having at least three specific instances wit the A300 airbus, American Airlines obviously still ignored the persisting problem. American Airlines clearly states that safety is always a concern for their customers. When there are enough incidents and safety is very important, AMR should have taken precautions before an accident like flight 587 happened. The planes should have been grounded and carefully inspected to ensure the security of the passengers. Only after 260 people are killed is this problem significant enough to be handed over for investigation to the Federal Aviation Administration. The F.A.A. will soon order that certain Airbus models must be inspected before they fly again if they are subjected to strong sideways forces in flight. It is ridiculous that the F.A.A. needs to tell a large company like AMR that they must make sure their planes are safe enough to fly. The company within themselves must have a policy like that. The F.A.A. is also trying t!

o resolve a contradiction between new advice to pilots on how and when to use the rudder, and existing instructions on what to do if a control panel warning indicates that the landing gear has not locked into place. Once again, if the pilots had mixed instructions on what to do in this situation, then American Airlines should have fixed the confusion. Minor problems that deal with safety should never be overlooked.

A few years ago, Ford came out with a new model of their Ford Explorer, which had firestone tires. However, these tires caused accidents because they weren't strong enough to hold the weight of the car. Before things got out of control, Ford did a recall on that Ford Explorer model and repaid every consumer for the manufacturi