Ruptured US plane had cracks repaired last year
Source: Agencies |
April 4, 2011, Monday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
CRACKS were found and repaired a year ago in the frame of the Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-300 that made an emergency landing in Arizona after a hole was torn in the passenger cabin, according to official records.
No one was seriously injured as the aircraft carrying 118 people rapidly lost cabin pressure and made a harrowing but controlled descent from 10,500 meters, landing safely near Yuma, Arizona, southwest of Phoenix, on Friday.
But passengers recalled tense minutes after a hole appeared overhead after a blast and they fumbled frantically for oxygen masks as the plane descended.
Federal investigators arrived in Yuma on Saturday and said they were cutting a piece from the fuselage of the stricken plane to determine how the rupture occurred.
Southwest grounded 80 similar planes to carry out inspections.
Federal Aviation Administration records of maintenance problems for the 15-year-old plane showed that in March 2010 at least eight instances were found of cracking in the aircraft frame, which is part of the fuselage, and another half-dozen instances of cracked stringer clips, which help hold the plane's skin on. The records showed that those problems were repaired.
It's not uncommon for fuselage cracks to be found during inspections of planes that age, especially during heavy maintenance checks in which they are taken apart so that inspectors can see into areas not normally visible.
Southwest officials said the Arizona plane had undergone all inspections required by the FAA. They said the plane was given a routine inspection last Tuesday and underwent its last so-called heavy check, a more costly and extensive overhaul, in March last year.
Southwest uses about 170 737-300s in its fleet of some 540 planes, but it has replaced the aluminum skin on many of them in recent years. The planes that were grounded on Saturday had not had their skin replaced, a spokeswoman said.
Julie O'Donnell, an aviation safety spokeswoman for Seattle-based Boeing Commercial Airplanes, confirmed "a hole in the fuselage and a depressurization event" in the latest incident but declined to speculate on what caused it.
A similar incident happened in July 2009 when a football-sized hole opened up in-flight in the fuselage of another of Southwest's Boeing 737s. The plane made an emergency landing in Charleston, West Virginia. It was later determined the hole was caused by metal fatigue.
No one was seriously injured as the aircraft carrying 118 people rapidly lost cabin pressure and made a harrowing but controlled descent from 10,500 meters, landing safely near Yuma, Arizona, southwest of Phoenix, on Friday.
But passengers recalled tense minutes after a hole appeared overhead after a blast and they fumbled frantically for oxygen masks as the plane descended.
Federal investigators arrived in Yuma on Saturday and said they were cutting a piece from the fuselage of the stricken plane to determine how the rupture occurred.
Southwest grounded 80 similar planes to carry out inspections.
Federal Aviation Administration records of maintenance problems for the 15-year-old plane showed that in March 2010 at least eight instances were found of cracking in the aircraft frame, which is part of the fuselage, and another half-dozen instances of cracked stringer clips, which help hold the plane's skin on. The records showed that those problems were repaired.
It's not uncommon for fuselage cracks to be found during inspections of planes that age, especially during heavy maintenance checks in which they are taken apart so that inspectors can see into areas not normally visible.
Southwest officials said the Arizona plane had undergone all inspections required by the FAA. They said the plane was given a routine inspection last Tuesday and underwent its last so-called heavy check, a more costly and extensive overhaul, in March last year.
Southwest uses about 170 737-300s in its fleet of some 540 planes, but it has replaced the aluminum skin on many of them in recent years. The planes that were grounded on Saturday had not had their skin replaced, a spokeswoman said.
Julie O'Donnell, an aviation safety spokeswoman for Seattle-based Boeing Commercial Airplanes, confirmed "a hole in the fuselage and a depressurization event" in the latest incident but declined to speculate on what caused it.
A similar incident happened in July 2009 when a football-sized hole opened up in-flight in the fuselage of another of Southwest's Boeing 737s. The plane made an emergency landing in Charleston, West Virginia. It was later determined the hole was caused by metal fatigue.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
