Inspections ground two Delta flights at TIA

At least two Delta flights out of Tampa International Airport were canceled today as the airline began a voluntary inspection of wiring in some of its planes.

The cancellations come a day after American, the nation's largest airline, canceled 132 flights of its estimated 2,300 flights scheduled for today, spokesman Tim Wagner said. That was about 6 percent of American's schedule today after the Fort Worth, Texas-based airline canceled 325 flights on Wednesday.

American's cancellations Wednesday disrupted plans by hundreds of people at TIA. However, the airport's Web site lists no cancellations for American Airlines flights today. The Delta flights that have been canceled are: flight 1897, which was scheduled to depart for New York-LaGuardia at 10:40 a.m., and flight 1836, which was scheduled to depart for New York-JFK at 12:15 p.m. A Tampa airport spokeswoman said both of those flights use the type of McDonnell-Douglas aircraft that are being inspected.

Nationwide, Delta has not specified the number of flights it was canceling today. However, the Atlanta-based carrier said it began voluntarily reinspecting wiring on 117 MD-88 aircraft Wednesday night.

   -- Times staff and wire reports