Air Berlin 737-800 Suffered Flap Position Glitch

If at first you don't succeed, try again... but if you don't succeed the second time, you'd best prepare for a passenger revolt.

Passengers on an Air Berlin flight from Nuremburg to Portugal came close to mutiny Sunday morning, demanding that the airline replace the Boeing 737-800 scheduled to operate their flight after pilots aborted two attempts to takeoff.

The Associated Press reports the aircraft experienced a problem with the flap position indicator in the cockpit. The pilots returned the plane to the gate after noticing the problem prior to their first takeoff attempt, and two of the 172 passengers onboard opted not to take the flight.

Airline spokeswoman Alexandra Mueller said the other 170 passengers boarded the airplane after the problem had been supposedly fixed... but when the same glitch popped up a second time, those passengers demanded Air Berlin bring in a new plane.

Those passengers -- perhaps aware of current questions about last month's downing of a Spanair MD-82 in Madrid, which investigators say may have been tied to improper flap settings on takeoff -- went so far as to sign a petition demanded a replacement aircraft. Eventually, Air Madrid flew in another 737 from Antalya, Turkey.

Mueller noted the incident shows "passengers are reacting very sensitively to every kind of technical defect at the moment."

Air Berlin technicians later identified the source of the glitch, and put the plane back in service... though on a different route.

FMI: www.airberlin.com