Regional carrier PSA Airlines, a wholly-owned subsidiary of American Airlines Group, is once again flying its fleet of CRJ regional aircraft after many were abruptly grounded last week to complete a standard inspection. According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the airworthiness directive prompting the grounding was triggered "by a report that corrosion was found on the shock strut cylinders during unscheduled maintenance of the nose landing gear.”

Back in the air

According to FlightGlobal, PSA Airlines has returned its CRJs to service after the grounding to complete a sudden inspection. The news comes from the airline's parent company, American Airlines. Simple Flying received the following statement from PSA Airlines:

“PSA Airlines resumed regular operations on Jan. 29 following the temporary removal of its aircraft from service. All aircraft inspections are complete.”

Data from AirNav RadarBox shows numerous PSA flights currently in the air. At the time of writing, most of PSA's scheduled flights have departed Charlotte, NC, en route to their respective destinations.

The situation last week

This sudden grounding took place after the Federal Aviation Administration published an airworthiness directive (AD) for the Bombardier BD-100-1A10. In effect since January 27th, the AD “was prompted by a report that corrosion was found on the shock strut cylinders during unscheduled maintenance of the nose landing gear.”

Although the Bombardier Challenger 300 is a different type of aircraft, the jet has enough similarity to the CRJ700 and 900 to prompt the inspection.

In a statement sent to Simple Flying last week, an American Airlines spokesman wrote,

“Out of an abundance of caution, PSA Airlines has temporarily removed most of its aircraft from service in order to complete a necessary, standard inspection on the nose gear door. We are working with PSA and the FAA to immediately address the issue. We are working with our customers to arrange new accommodations on other flights and we are working to return the impacted aircraft to service.”

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PSA Airline's fleet

PSA Airline's fleet consists of 130 Bombardier-built CRJ regional aircraft. 61 of these are the smaller CRJ700, which seats nine in business and 54 in economy class. The other 69 jets are CRJ900s, which seat 12 in business and 64 in economy class.

The average age of the CRJ700s is 14.8 years, while the CRJ900s are much newer, averaging just 4.7 years of age.

As a wholly-owned subsidiary of the American Airlines Group, PSA Airlines operates under the American Eagle brand. American Eagle is the regional brand of American Airlines and connects American's larger hubs with smaller communities. Philadelphia and Charlotte are among two of PSA's largest hubs.

Have you flown on an American Eagle CRJ recently? Share your experience with us in the comments.