Pan Am Grounds Jet After Wires Found Cut in N.Y.

NEW YORK —  A maintenance worker discovered Wednesday that wires were cut aboard a Pan Am plane preparing to leave New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport for Miami, prompting investigations by the FBI, the Federal Aviation Administration and airport police.

All 102 passengers with tickets to board the A300 Airbus were booked on another flight after the tampering was found in an electronic compartment beneath the cockpit.

Pan Am said the cut wires were seen about 5:30 a.m., three hours before the plane was scheduled to depart.

Jeff Kreindler, a spokesman for the airline, said that even if the sharp-eyed mechanic hadn’t spotted the irregularity, the plane would not have left the gate, because the problems would have been apparent to personnel in the cockpit.

He declined to say which wires were cut.

Pan Am said the Airbus from Los Angeles had landed at the airport at 9:01 p.m. on Tuesday, and after maintenance, was scheduled to depart for Miami at 8:30 the next morning.

A spokesman for the FAA said that before Wednesday’s incident, there had been no recent reports of problems with any Pan Air aircraft.

Pan Am’s planes are served by nonunion mechanics at Kennedy Airport, and the airline uses gate space at TWA’s terminal. Unionized mechanics work on TWA’s aircraft, and investigators were looking into the possibility the sabotage could have been the result of a labor dispute.

Pan Am World Airways declared voluntary bankruptcy and ceased operations in 1991. It returned to the air on a drastically reduced basis in 1996. Since emerging from bankruptcy, the airline’s routes have declined drastically. Pan Am has just five planes, flying to Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Miami, Santo Domingo and San Juan.