A stinging opinion piece has shamed American Airlines for flying a plane with masking tape visible on a flight that never seemed to end.

An opinion piece by author Gary Shteyngart in the New York Times at the weekend has left American Airlines red faced and ducking for cover. The airline is battling bankruptcy and a dispute with pilots. Now the public are turning on America's once-famous airline.

"You, American Airlines, should no longer be flying across the Atlantic. You do not have the know-how," Shteyngart writes. "You do not have the equipment. And your employees have clearly lost interest in the endeavor. Like the country whose name graces the hulls of your flying ships, you are exhausted and shorn of purpose. You need to stop."

Shteyngart wrote the opinion article after taking, or trying to take, Flight 121 from Paris to New York.

It's a flight, he said, that was probably still going on a plane where the overhead baggage compartment was "held together with masking tape".

Shteyngart says the initial delay was "a mere hour or two". Some passengers were told the plane had faulty brakes and tyres, others were told the crew could not find their way from Paris. Either way, it was not good news.

It got worse.

"Halfway across the Atlantic you decided to turn Flight 121 back because your altimeter wasn't working. Some of us were worried for our safety, but your employees mostly shrugged as if to say, 'ah, there goes that altimeter again'."

The plane was diverted to the UK. It was met by fire trucks at Heathrow airport. The passengers were assigned an American Airlines employee to take them through the border for a night of rest.

Shteyngart says three immigration lanes were reportedly closed on the passengers of Flight 121 before they were allowed into the UK.

"An apocalyptic scenario: an employee of the world's worst airline assigned to the world's worst border crossing at the world's worst airport."

The next morning Shteyngart says passengers were taken to their new plane by bus.

"The bus brought us to our new plane, but the doors of the bus would not open. We stood, pressed to one another, in sweltering heat, as the plane was sprayed down for no reason we could discern. It would have been nice, in retrospect, had you sprayed us down, or at least given us something to drink. After an hour, we were told this flight would be cancelled because this plane, too, had caught ill. Back to the terminal once more."

American Airlines is embroiled in an industrial dispute with pilots. According to the Wall Street Journal, flight cancellations at American are running between 3 percent and 5 percent a day in an industry where a 1 percent rate is considered a very bad day. Only about half of American's flights are arriving on time, compared with more than 80 percent for most large carriers.

In an internal memo, American warned that pilots were "limited" because the end of the month is days away and many pilots have flown all the available hours allowed by regulators.

American Airlines parent AMR Corp blamed the flight delays on more sick calls than expected and pilot maintenance complaints, including serious mechanical items as well as simple things like frayed seat belts, broken reading lights and coffee makers.

The broken planes and delays are clearly annoying passengers.

San Diego accountant Bill Schairer told the Wall Street Journal he noticed broken tray tables, broken seats, occupied gates and luggage carousel stoppages on a trip to Boston. Despite being a member of the airline's frequent-flier program, he has vowed to look for alternative transport.