American Airlines acknowledged Wednesday that a computer glitch in June cancelled about 3,000 flights, many at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, and cost the carrier $35m. American said the IT problem at PSA Airlines, a wholly owned regional carrier, disrupted flights for a week starting June 14, according to a filing at the Securities and Exchange Commission. "We understand that these cancellations have been frustrating for our customers, and we are doing everything in our power to get things back to normal as quickly as possible," American Airlines said. "We are rebooking passengers and American's customer relations department will be reaching out to all affected customers." American will report its Q2 earnings July 26. The IT problems cost American an estimated $35m in pre-tax income, according to the filing. Overall, the airline reported $215m in special items during Q2 that covered expenses from investing in China Southern Airlines and bankruptcy obligations, and included a $26m write-off for route authority to Brazil, which now has an Open Skies agreement with the US.<br/>
oneworld
A BA flight carrying 214 people from London to Mumbai made an emergency landing at a Baku airport Thursday. No one was hurt. The captain of flight BAW199 requested an emergency landing at Baku's Heydar Aliyev airport after a failure of the left engine on the Boeing-777, the airport said. The airline said that the decision to divert the plane was made "following a technical issue." The plane landed safely at around 6:30 a.m. local time. The passengers were taken to the airport's transit zone and were given food and drink, according to the airport.<br/>
UK investigators are seeking modifications to the Boeing 787 audio system to improve clarity of cockpit-voice recorder information. The advisory follows a loss of cabin pressurisation on a BA 787-9, operating from Heathrow to New Delhi on 29 April last year, which resulted in deployment of oxygen masks. While the pressurisation problem was traced to a detached air conditioning fan duct, the Air Accidents Investigation Branch inquiry turned up several other safety-related issues associated with the flight. The 787's audio system combines crew headset and oxygen mask microphone signals with the 'sidetone' signal - the audio reproduced through headset speakers, consisting of the pilot's voice, radio transmissions and interphone communications. "When the oxygen masks are used, the sidetone signal can be easily obscured due to the much higher signal level of the oxygen mask microphone," says the BA incident inquiry. This could mask air traffic communications and quieter background sounds, it adds, and potentially significant information could be lost. The inquiry has recommended that the US FAA requires Boeing to modify the 787's audio system so that sidetone signals on the cockpit-voice recorder are not cloaked when crew oxygen mask microphones are in use.<br/>