Run time: 01:23
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOxtmSKuRgA
Posted on YouTube: April 02, 2011
By YouTube Member: AlJazeeraEnglish
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Posted on DU: April 02, 2011
By DU Member: DeSwiss
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The plane is a 15-year-old Boeing 737-300. Southwest officials said Saturday they would pull 80 similar planes out of service for inspections of the fuselage. Southwest operates more than 200 of the 737-300s in its fleet of about 540 planes, but it replaced the aluminum skin on many of the 300s in recent years, spokeswoman Linda Rutherford said. The 80 planes being grounded have not have their skin replaced, she said.
"Obviously we're dealing with a skin issue, and we believe that these 80 airplanes are covered by a set of (federal safety rules) that make them candidates to do this additional inspection that Boeing is devising for us," Rutherford said. Southwest officials said the Arizona plane had undergone all inspections required by the FAA, but they did not immediately provide the date of the last inspection. The 737-300 is the oldest plane in Southwest's fleet, and the company is retiring 300s as it take deliveries of new Boeing 737-700s and, beginning next year, 737-800s. But the process of replacing all the 300s could take years.
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The National Transportation Safety Board said an "in-flight fuselage rupture" led to the drop in cabin pressure aboard the plane. A similar incident on a Southwest plane to Baltimore in July 2009 also forced an emergency landing when a foot-long hole opened in the cabin. Four months earlier, the Dallas-based airline had agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle charges that it operated planes that had missed required safety inspections for cracks in the fuselage. The airline, which flies Boeing 737s, inspected nearly 200 of its planes back then, found no cracks and put them back in the sky.
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Holes in aircraft can be caused by metal fatigue or lightning. The National Weather Service said the weather was clear from the Phoenix area to the California border on Friday afternoon. In 1988, cracks caused part of the roof of an Aloha Airlines Boeing 737 to peel open while the jet flew from Hilo to Honolulu. A flight attendant was sucked out of the plane and plunged to her death, and dozens of passengers were injured. Three years ago, an exploding oxygen cylinder ripped a gaping hole the fuselage of a Qantas Boeing 747-438 carrying 365 people. The plane descended thousands of feet with the loss of cabin pressure and flew about 300 miles to Manila, where it made a successful emergency landing. No one was injured.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/02/fuselage-rupture-forces-emergency-landing-southwest_n_843925.html">MORE
- It would seem that those X-ray machines the TSA is using to irradiate passengers with, would be put to better use examining the planes for cracks......