American Airlines flight AA735 from London-Heathrow to Charlotte returned to LHR on 10 June after multiple lightning strikes over Manchester. Four days on, the Boeing 777-300ER is still on the ground awaiting a joint inspection by the UK Civil Aviation Authority and the US FAA, the carrier confirmed. The extended outage removes one wide-body from American’s trans-Atlantic rotation during the busy summer schedule, forcing last-minute equipment swaps and re-routing of passengers via Philadelphia or JFK. Heathrow’s slot-constrained environment leaves little slack; analysts at OAG estimate the grounded jet equates to a temporary 1.2 % cut in AA’s UK–US seat inventory. Under UK261 rules, lightning is deemed an “extraordinary circumstance”, so cash compensation is unlikely, but airlines must still provide meals, hotels and re-booking. Travel managers with corporate contracts on the Heathrow–Charlotte corridor are advising travellers to favour multi-frequency routings until the aircraft returns to service. The event also demonstrates the regulatory hand-off between the FAA and CAA: an FAA-certified airline operating in UK airspace must satisfy both authorities before dispatch, a process that can stretch to a week if skin or avionics repairs are needed.
Source: Air Traveler Club
