Flight cancellations continue

TAMPA -- American Airlines canceled more than 900 flights today while the carrier complies with federally ordered safety inspections, according to the Associated Press.

At Tampa International Airport this morning, eight total flights - seven departures to Chicago and Dallas as well as one arriving flight from Chicago - had all been scrubbed, said airport spokeswoman Kelly Figley.

Linda Johnston was headed to Dallas for a real estate conference. She said she checked her flight's  details online at 2 p.m. Wednesday. Nothing indicated the flight would be canceled. 

"We printed the boarding passes no problem," she said. "Then we arrived."

At 7:45 a.m. today, she discovered her flight had been canceled. Now, she's stuck scrambling to make new travel arrangements.

In problems unrelated to the FAA inspection, other unlucky Dallas-bound passengers actually got to sit on board their flight before they were asked to leave the plane, which had been slated to make a stop in Miami, because of problems with a faulty door latch.

Dan McClain, quoted in today's St. Petersburg Times story while waiting in line after two days of flight delays, was one of them.

"So now here I am, day three, trying to make it back to Dallas," he said. "Unbelievable."

Randy Crites, who was also heading to Dallas to visit family, didn't check the flight schedules before leaving his Tampa home. Big mistake.

When he tried to check his bags at the airport this morning, an electronic kiosk spit out a ticket saying the airline could not complete his transaction.

"We didn't check before we came," Crites said. "A mistake on our part."

Daniel Garton, an executive vice president of American, told the Associated Press that cancellations could extend into Friday.

-- Jared Leone and Casey Cora, Times staff writers