Airlines report problems found during inspections

(Los Angeles-AP) -- Airlines are reporting the problems they've found during inspections stemming from last week's Alaska Airlines<br>crash.<br><br>Continental Airlines says it found a quarter-inch

Friday, February 11th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

(Los Angeles-AP) -- Airlines are reporting the problems they've found during inspections stemming from last week's Alaska Airlines
crash.

Continental Airlines says it found a quarter-inch metal shaving in the tail wing mechanism of an out-of-service M-D-80 that was undergoing scheduled maintenance.

Delta says it found two M-D-90 aircraft with a gritty residue below the horizontal stabilizer.

Northwest Airlines says it pulled a D-C-9 from service, after some sort of irregularity was found in the tail wing assembly.

American Airlines says mechanics in Nevada found a tail wing assembly of an M-D-90 needed lubrication, but there wasn't any
evidence of unusual wear.

The National Transportation Safety Board says a total of six aircraft have been found to have unusual metal shavings in or around their tail wing assemblies, including the plane that
crashed last week.

It's not clear if the findings reported by the various airlines are among the three new cases that the N-T-S-B says turned up
today.