The USA's No. 2 carrier grounded 52 jetliners — 11% of its fleet — to conduct tests of the aircraft's cargo fire suppression system.

By early morning, United cancelled 28 flights scheduled to depart on 777s today from Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington and Denver, says Megan McCarthy, a United spokeswoman. The extent of the cancellations and delays will vary as testing is completed. By 8 a.m. Chicago time, United had inspected and cleared 12 of the planes, and each is being put back to service, she says.

This is the third time in a month that a government audit of airline safety compliance records has prompted the grounding of planes.

Last month, the Federal Aviation Administration launched the review of all U.S. airlines after discovering that Southwest Airlines had continued to fly some older Boeing 737 jets that had not been inspected for surface cracks. Tiny cracks in the fuselage from metal fatigue can lead to fuselage damage and sudden decompression, or loss of cabin air, during flight.

The FAA fined Southwest $10.2 million for flying at least 46 planes without doing the mandatory inspections. In early March, Southwest grounded dozens of Boeing 737 jets to perform additional inspections for metal fatigue.

Two weeks later, American and Delta airlines cancelled hundreds of flights in order to inspect wire bundles on their MD-80s, an older model of narrow-body jet. The carriers said the voluntary groundings were to make sure the wiring was installed and secured according to FAA instructions.

In the wake of acknowledged problems with how the FAA enforced maintenance at Southwest, the agency last month ordered a review of airline compliance with mandatory safety inspections and parts replacements.

The FAA will announce today that in spite of the spate of groundings prompted by the review, the results show that the industry is overwhelmingly in compliance, said spokeswoman Lynn Tierney.

The House Transportation Committee will hold a hearing Thursday on testimony from whistle-blowers alleging that the FAA has blocked its inspectors from enforcing safety rules at airlines.

The series of checks are largely precautionary measures, says David Castelveter, spokesman for the Air Transport Association.

"We've yet to see any compromise to the integrity of safety," he says.

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