In the past two weeks, a variety of airlines decided to pull planes from service to investigate the condition of the aircraft. In particular, the aircraft's wiring was not checked for integrity; ensuring that each aircraft has continuous communication between the cockpit and critical controls. Thousands of travelers, like me, were stuck to the ground waiting for the fleets to return to service. At the heart of the issue was aircraft wiring; specifically wiring that was not routinely maintained as defined by the FAA. The FAA made it clear that airlines had 18 months to check their electrical wiring. This order was issued in September 2006. The picture to the right shows the aircraft wiring in the MD-80 aircraft; the exact airplane grounded by American Airlines.

250,000 passengers were affected by American Airlines cancellations alone. Besides the customers that decided to book on other airlines, lots of customers were offered $500 vouchers and given hotel rooms. If I was in that position, this is the least that the airlines could have done.

Why? Because this entire incident was completely avoidable. Airlines typically maintain their fleet through a process known as "time-based maintenance". That means that every so many months, airlines bring each plane in for service. Because we don't know the condition of the aircraft, they are maintained periodically in the hope that all issues are caught.

Why am I blogging about this, when many of us have been affected and know about the problem? The reason is that a solution is available today. Many companies have been adopting "condition-based maintenance". What it means is that instead of bringing planes in periodically, bring planes in when they need maintenance.

How? Use pervasive computers. With wireless computers attached to the wiring on planes, the very thing that grounded airlines, we can detect when the wiring is failing and notify maintenance. This means that we don't ground fleets; instead planes are serviced as they need. This is good for both airlines and passengers; planes are only taken out of service as needed, saving money and reducing the inconvenience for passengers.

Sentilla is solving the aircraft maintenance problem today, amongst a multitude of other problems. The next time you're on a flight and they say "I'm sorry, we're going to be delayed due to a maintenance issue", you should ask them "why don't you have Sentilla's computers to prevent that problem?"