Airline grounds several planes

But the fleet gets FAA OK as agency pushes upgrades

Island Airlines, which ferries passengers and freight between Hyannis and Nantucket, delayed or canceled three flights yesterday as it discussed with the Federal Aviation Administration whether it needed to upgrade the transponders on five of its seven planes.

W. Scott LaForge, the airline's president and chief executive, said the airline grounded the five planes, but received permission from the FAA in the midafternoon to keep flying the whole fleet. Upgraded equipment was installed in one of the grounded planes. He said the airline is waiting for a definitive ruling from the FAA on what it must do about the remaining four.

He argued that the next-generation equipment is unnecessary on the route flown by his planes - and expensive.

But Arlene Salac, a spokesman for the FAA in New England, said the agency, "looking to the future," wants the equipment installed.

An airplane transponder is a device that, when the craft is hit by radar, sends information back for display on the air traffic controller's screen, such as the plane's flight number, altitude, and air speed.

LaForge said the upgraded equipment would allow the owner's name and plane's registration number to be transmitted.

LaForge said he is hoping the agency will allow the airline to operate without the new transponders or give it a "reasonable amount of time" to install them in the four planes.