Spirit Airlines cancels dozens of flights to inspect some of its planes. Disruptions will last days

Spirit Airlines canceled about 100 flights on Friday after pulling some planes out of service for inspections, and the airline expects the disruptions to last several days.

Spirit did not describe the nature of the inspections and did not respond when asked for further information, but the Federal Aviation Administration said it involved inspection of brackets on the planes’ airframes.

By late Friday afternoon, Spirit had canceled 11% of its schedule for the day, easily the highest percentage of scrubbed flights among leading U.S. carriers, according to tracking service FlightAware.

The FAA said it was aware of Spirit’s decision to pull the planes from service for a “mandatory maintenance inspection.” The inspections are required to look for signs of cracking around fasteners that attach pressure panels to beams on the planes’ airframes, according to an FAA document.

If undetected, the cracks could lead to reduced structural integrity “and possible rapid decompression of the airplane,” according to the document.