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American Airlines canceled 10 domestic flights from Los Angeles International Airport this morning after grounding its fleet of 300 MD-80 jetliners for wiring inspections and repairs after federal inspectors noticed irregularities.

The airline grounded 200 flights nationally, a spokesman said. The MD-80s make up 40% to 45% of American's total fleet.

About 1,000 LAX passengers saw their flights canceled this morning, LAX spokesman Albert Rodriguez said. Airline staff rerouted passengers on later flights, and don't expect all the planes to be up and running until Thursday afternoon.

American had 82 flights still scheduled to depart LAX as of this morning, Rodriguez said.

American also grounded a flight at Ontario International Airport and four flights at San Diego International Airport, according to Charlie Wilson, a spokesman at the company's headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas.

The cancellations did not affect passengers at other local airports, including Burbank's Bob Hope Airport and John Wayne Airport in Orange County, spokeswomen there said.

At issue is whether ties attaching a protective sleeve over wiring in the planes' wheel wells were spaced closely enough. Federal and American Airlines inspectors recently found some ties on American planes more than an inch apart, a potential violation of federal safety standards, Wilson said.

In response, Wilson said airline managers chose "the prudent and most cautious measure: to ground the fleet and make sure where the fixes needed to be made. We made them to get the fleet back into service."

It takes several hours to inspect and repair the wiring, Wilson said. By Wednesday afternoon, American Airlines staff had cleared about 100 planes to return to service, Wilson said. But due to delays in moving planes to the handful of airports with inspectors, including Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Dallas and St. Louis, part of the fleet will remain grounded until Thursday afternoon, Wilson said.

"We just wanted to make sure we were spot-on with that compliance," he said, stressing that the flight cancellations and inspections were "a voluntary, proactive measure."

The grounded flights come during a new Federal Aviation Administration audit of airlines' compliance with federal airworthiness standards, which govern plane parts and maintenance. The standard concerning MD-80 wiring was issued two years ago, but FAA inspectors began auditing American and other airlines earlier this month after they discovered Southwest Airlines failed to meet the federal requirements.

FAA officials have since recommended Southwest pay a $10.2-million fine.

Federal inspectors plan to audit airlines' compliance with 10 FAA airworthiness standards by Friday, and then review an additional 10% of airworthiness standards specific to planes in each airline's fleet by June 30, officials said.

"What you're seeing today is a result of that audit," said Los Angeles-based FAA spokesman Ian Gregor. "Our inspector who is looking at American Airlines records raised some questions about whether American was complying with that order."

So far, Gregor said the national FAA audit has shown a "very high rate of compliance" with federal regulations.

molly.hennessy-fiske@latimes.com