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United cancelled nearly a third of its Boeing 777 flights on the morning of April 2 as it scrambled to inspect all 52 aircraft in its 777 fleet.

It is the fourth carrier in the past several days to briefly ground large proportions of their fleets to perform snap re-inspections.

As of 9 a.m. CDT, the carrier cancelled 28 of its 84 777 flights.

During a "regular review of its maintenance records," United discovered that a "functional test" on part of the cargo fire suppression system was not performed.

One of the five bottles in the system was affected.

United said it voluntarily reported the problem to FAA.

The carrier stressed that the 777 performs "regular self diagnostic tests of all systems, and would have detected any issues with the fire suppression system."

FAA said the re-inspections are unrelated to any airworthiness directives, and are not connected to its audit of airworthiness directive compliance.