Over 1000 flights affected

As reported earlier, those pesky people at the FAA are pretty concerned about the MD-80s airworthiness. It resulted in 500 cancelled flights yesterday, and as many as 850 more flights aren't flying today.

Flights GroundedAmerican Airlines shares are down as a result, and so is customer morale. The cancelled flights represent 40 percent of the American schedule, meaning that thousands of passengers are trapped on the ground. As with Skybus's sudden stop last week, AA didn't bother to tell customers that its going down.

Instead, the grounded flights are being reported as they happen, with passengers stuck in airports, or paying for hotels in strange cities.

According to the Boston Globe, the inspections "are part of an industrywide FAA review of airline compliance with agency safety directives." Which means that other airlines might be forced to do the same.

If your flight, on any airline, is supposed to be on board an MD-80, investigate other means to get around. In the meantime, we'd really appreciate it if the FAA or airlines could start announcing this stuff before it happens.