Commuter Airline Grounds Itself Great Lakes Avoids Suspension, Denies Maintenance Charges

Commuter airline Great Lakes Aviation grounded itself temporarily after federal regulators found it improperly trained maintenance workers and “operated unairworthy aircraft.”

Great Lakes, which also flies as United Express and Midway Connection, avoided a suspension from the Federal Aviation Administration by voluntarily shutting down operations Friday, the FAA said Saturday.

The grounding, which will last at least through Tuesday, affected up to 500 flights a day.

Great Lakes provided service to 82 cities in 21 states and three cities in Mexico. Major hubs are in Denver, Chicago, Minneapolis, Raleigh-Durham, N.C., and Phoenix. It operated a fleet of 54 twin-engine turbo-prop planes.

FAA inspections found that Great Lakes allowed personnel who were not properly trained to perform aircraft maintenance, saying the airline “operated unairworthy aircraft.”

Great Lakes defended its safety record and practices.

“Rather than create an impression that we’re unsafe, we’re voluntarily shutting down our operation,” said Dick Fontaine, a marketing executive.

Great Lakes is “absolutely” airworthy and recently passed an inspection, he said.

Saying he did not know actual details of what the FAA found, Fontaine said problems were “a combination of paperwork, actual practices and some items they found in spot checks on airplanes, some of which were very trivial and some of which may have led them to have legitimate concerns.”

Affected ticketholders were urged to contact Great Lakes, United, Midway, or travel agents to rebook their flights.

Great Lakes’ planes were returning to the company’s base in Spencer, Iowa, for inspection, Fontaine said. Several of its turboprop planes were on the tarmac at Spencer on Saturday.

The airline operates throughout the Midwest and the Plains states as United Express, and in the Southeast as Midway Connection.

Overall, Great Lakes Aviation operates about 500 flights per day carrying about 887,000 passengers annually, the FAA said.