American to Add Rafts to Some of Its Planes

Contributing Editor Carl Unger believes that every trip is worth taking. He loves an extended trip to Europe as much as he enjoys exploring the towns and landscape near home. Basically, you'll find him wherever there is good food, fresh air, and plenty of stories to bring home.

Carl has been writing for SmarterTravel since 2005. His travel writing has also appeared on USA Today and the About.com Boston travel guide.

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Bloomberg reports that [[American]] will add rafts to 58 of its 767-300s after a routine audit revealed inadequate raft space. American will limit the number of passengers on the planes until the additional rafts are installed, reducing the maximum capacity from 236 to 228.

You might be wondering how American ended up with 58 planes flying with insufficient raft space. Apparently the airline added two business-class seats on each aircraft, but didn’t add any raft capacity. American spokesman Tim Wagner said the audit had nothing to do with the recent crash landing of US Airways Flight 1549, in which inflatable rafts were deployed and used to evacuate passengers. He also said American passengers were never in danger due to the raft-space shortage. American notified the FAA of the situation and will work with the agency to resolve it.

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