AMR Corp.’s American Airlines, the world’s largest carrier, and Delta Air Lines Inc. canceled more than 400 flights combined to reinspect wiring on their Boeing Co. MD-80 model jets.

Delta stranded a “few thousand” passengers in Atlanta as it began halting 275 flights, the company said. American scrubbed 141 flights yesterday, after dropping 318 Wednesday. The cancellations follow Federal Aviation Administration checks on airline maintenance records for compliance with government directives. The FAA proposed a $10.2 million fine, the highest ever, against Southwest Airlines Co. on March 6 for flying 46 jets without proper inspections for fuselage cracks.

“The airlines are very sensitive to this right now, given the issues at Southwest,” a New York-based analyst for FTN Midwest Research Securities Corp., Michael Derchin, said in an interview. “They’re moving very quickly to take corrective action.” Today’s cuts amount to 5.7% of American’s 2,300 primary jet operations and 3% of Delta’s worldwide schedule of 4,056 flights. AMR fell 23 cents, or 2.7%, to $8.38 and Delta declined 39 cents, or 4.5%, to $8.35 at 4:03 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.

Delta, the third-largest American airline, is checking all 117 of its MD-88s, spokeswoman Betsy Talton said in an interview. That represents about 20% of the Atlanta-based company’s fleet. all work is expected to be complete by today, she said. About 1,200 people “had to spend the night at hotel Hartsfield,” a spokesman for Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Orzy Theus, said, referring to passengers who slept in the airport’s terminals after their Delta flights were canceled.