American Airlines Group grounded 14 Boeing 737-800 airplanes Thursday after complaints by pilots that overhead bins on some recently-retrofitted aircraft cabins were not closing, an American official said. American said the issue did not jeopardize the safety of flights and that it is working with the supplier that handled the cabin retrofits and the FAA to immediately address the issue. American had hired a long-time supplier, ATS, to update the main cabins of some of its 737-800s with 12 additional seats, said Gary Schaible, president of Transport Workers Union Local 591, which represents 4,800 American mechanics. After write-ups from pilots saying that overhead bins on some 737-800s were not closing after the updating, the planes were taken to American's maintenance base in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where mechanics discovered additional issues, Schaible said. The American official confirmed the problem of bins not closing. "After further inspection by American, the work that was conducted on these two aircraft was not up to our standards. Out of an abundance of caution, we have proactively removed from service the additional 12 aircraft that were updated by this vendor and have notified the FAA," American said.<br/>
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Qantas domestic passengers will soon be able to board flights with heavier carry-on bags after travellers complained about the airline's 7-kg limit. From March 25, travellers will be allowed to carry on one item weighing as much as 10 kg and a second piece up to 4 kg. The total cabin baggage weight limit will still be 14 kg per person, with the rule change allowing one bag to be heavier than the other. The physical size limits on cabin bags remain the same. Passengers are also still allowed to bring one small personal item bag, such as a handbag or slim laptop bag, as well as the two carry-on bags. Qantas said airline crews will be at the airport to ensure passengers are adhering to the new baggage policy, adding that any piece of cabin baggage weighing more than 10 kg will have to be checked in. The decision followed a trial over summer which included weighing passengers' carry-on bags at the boarding gate. It found that while nine out of 10 travellers had less than 10kg of cabin baggage in total, about 40% of passengers had bags weighing between 7 and 10kg. "We’ve had feedback from our frequent flyers who said they can easily keep within the 14 kilogram limit but would like flexibility in how they use their cabin baggage allowance," Qantas Domestic CE Andrew David said.<br/>
Every Saturday, Chinese farmer Li Eryou still calls the long-disconnected mobile telephone number of his son, who was among the 239 aboard Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 when it vanished five years ago in the world’s greatest aviation mystery. “I don’t care what’s on the other end,” said the 60-year-old farmer from rural Handan, in the northern province of Hebei, as he described his weekly ritual. “I would always say a few words to my son.” Li Yanlin, who worked in Malaysia for Chinese telecoms equipment giant ZTE, was 30 when the flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing disappeared on March 8, 2014, with 153 Chinese citizens on board. “My son was the first person in our village to go abroad by plane,” his father told Reuters, as he thumbed through an album of his son’s last photos holidaying in Malaysia, downloaded from social media by his distraught parents. Li’s wife, Liu Shuangfeng, said she frequently cries herself to sleep and has been diagnosed with severe depression. In January 2017, Australia, China and Malaysia called off a two-year, $141-million underwater search in the southern Indian Ocean after it found no trace of the aircraft. A second, three-month search, led by U.S. exploration firm Ocean Infinity, ended unsuccessfully last May. Last week Malaysia said it would consider resuming the search if viable proposals or credible leads emerged, but a lack of closure continues to gnaw at those left behind.<br/>