Washington: An American Airlines flight was grounded before takeoff due to a software bug that disabled pilots’ iPad-powered electronic flight bags, potentially affecting the carrier’s entire fleet of 737 aircraft.
Passengers aboard American Airlines flight #1654 from Dallas to Austin said EFB iPads belonging to both captain and copilot “went blank” as crew prepared for takeoff.
“The pilot came on and said that his first mate’s iPad powered down unexpectedly, and his had too, and that the entire 737 fleet on American had experienced the same behavior,” said Philip McRell, a passenger on flight #1654.
“It seemed unprecedented and very unfamiliar to the pilots,” he added.
The app contains all of the manuals and flight plans which were previously published in a paper format in the cockpit.
The error affected multiple planes across the airline’s fleet.
A spokesman for American Airlines said the app’s problem was related to the cellular data connection, and that planes had to return to the gate to access a Wi-Fi connection to resolve the problem.
When the change to virtual manuals was first made, American Airlines said the move helped saved 400,000 gallons of fuel annually due to the decreased weight.
More than 3,000 pages of paper was previously carried by every active pilot and instructor.
The groundings come days after the FBI issued an alert to airlines to look for evidence of passengers attempting to use on-board Wi-Fi networks to access the plane’s controls.