Pilots at American Airlines Group Inc. are being told to delete
and reload an app that provides navigational charts on their
company-issued Apple Inc. iPads after a software glitch led to
flight delays.
An American spokeswoman said the problem wasn't an in-flight
safety issue. It occurred preflight and the fix didn't take long.
No flights were canceled but 24 were delayed by up to 30 minutes
Tuesday night and another 30 were delayed Wednesday morning.
"We are starting to see decreasing delays as pilots become aware
they can reinstate the app," she said.
Pilots began experiencing the problem while still on the ground
when they opened their iPads to an airport terminal map for Ronald
Reagan Washington National Airport, said a spokesman for Boeing
Co.'s Jeppesen Sanderson unit, which provides the navigation app.
The app contained a duplicate of that map, which caused it to
become unresponsive if pilots clicked on it.
Jeppesen updates American's charts every two weeks, and the new
version is scheduled to become effective May 8.
American figured out the problem Tuesday night, the spokeswoman
said, and began alerting pilots who signed in for work. They were
told to delete the Jeppesen app and download the same version. Some
aviators had to bring their planes back to the gate where they
could access airport Wi-Fi from the cockpit. Pilots aren't allowed
to connect to the Internet in-flight.
Most major U.S. airlines now issue iPads or other tablet devices
to their pilots to store digital copies of navigation charts,
flight manuals, emergency checklists and other documents that the
aviators formerly lugged around in heavy briefcases. The Federal
Aviation Administration has approved the switch, and pilots say
having the documents available at the touch of a tablet is quicker
and easier.
American rolled out its program in 2013, around the same time as
rivals including United Continental Holdings Inc., Southwest
Airlines Co., JetBlue Airways Corp. and Alaska Air Group Inc.'s
Alaska Airlines.
Jeppesen supplies charts to those airlines, among others, the
spokesman said, but American's app is unique to the airline. The
American glitch "is the first time we've ever seen this," he said,
adding that the company is investigating.
Not all of the flights delayed were necessarily headed to Reagan
National Airport. Any pilot who even glanced at that chart would
have triggered the app problem and need to reload it. American
doesn't carry backup paper versions of terminal charts in its
cockpits, the spokeswoman said.
Jeppesen said temporary workarounds for pilots headed for
Washington could include the issuance of a paper version of the
terminal map or a PDF file containing the digital version of the
chart sent into the iPad but outside of the app.
Write to Susan Carey at susan.carey@wsj.com
Access Investor Kit for Apple, Inc.
Visit
http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=US0378331005
Access Investor Kit for The Boeing Co.
Visit
http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=US0970231058
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires