The News Reports On American Airlines

I have probably seen five or six television news reports on the grounding of American Airlines MD80 planes. After seeing that many news reports you would think I would know what’s going on. Actually, I don’t have a clue. All I know is that passengers are stranded because bundles of wire are being inspected because little plastic ties that hold the bundles together are supposed to be one inch apart and maybe some of them are not.

Thanks to the detailed reporting of television news I don’t know very much about this situation. I don’t know why this is such a big deal at this particular time. Why wasn’t it a big deal a month ago? Did the little plastic tie things move all of a sudden? I don’t know if any of the landing gear failed at some time in the past. I don’t know if there have been any accidents because of this problem. I don’t know why it seems to be confined to American Airlines and not other carriers. Perhaps these things are being reported somewhere, but they weren’t on any of the reports I saw. Why not?