Boeing 737 cabin ruptured during mid-flight. Southwest grounds 79 planes.
51 replies, posted
[url]http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/03/us/03plane.html[/url]
[release]Southwest Airlines grounded 79 airplanes on Saturday after a piece of the fuselage on one of its Boeing 737s ripped open during a flight the day before, leaving a hole in the cabin ceiling and rapidly depressurizing the aircraft.
Enlarge This Image
Brenda Reese, via Associated Press
A photo provided by a passenger of a Southwest Airlines plane that landed Friday after its cabin decompressed.
“We’re taking them out of service to inspect them over the next few days,” Whitney Eichinger, a Southwest spokeswoman, said Saturday. She said they would be “looking for the same type of aircraft skin fatigue.”
In a news release, Southwest announced that it would cancel about 300 flights on Saturday because of inspections, and that customers should expect delays of up to two hours.
“The safety of our customers and employees is our primary concern,” Mike Van de Ven, Southwest’s chief operating officer, said in a statement. “We are working closely with Boeing to conduct these proactive inspections and support the investigation.”
The Southwest plane, a 15-year old Boeing 737-300, was cruising at around 35,000 feet on Friday afternoon en route to Sacramento from Phoenix when passengers heard an explosion. The Associated Press reported that one woman described it as “gunshot-like.”
Oxygen masks were released, and two people, a passenger and a flight attendant, passed out as the pilot descended to make an emergency landing at a military base in Yuma, Ariz. Nobody was seriously injured, Ms. Eichinger said.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation told The Associated Press that there was no reason to suspect terrorism.
All 118 passengers on board chose to continue on to their destination Friday evening aboard a replacement jet, Ms. Eichinger said.
Southwest Airlines’ fleet is made up entirely of Boeing 737s, and the 79 planes the company grounded were all 737-300s.
Pictures of the airplane show that a flap of the aircraft’s skin near the overhead baggage compartments was peeled back.
“You can see completely outside,” one passenger, Brenda Reese, told The Associated Press. “When you look up through the panel, you can see the sky.”
This was not the only incident in American skies on Friday.
In a separate episode, an American Airlines flight from Reagan National Airport in Washington to Chicago made an emergency landing in Dayton, Ohio, after two flight attendants told the captain they were feeling dizzy. Jim Faulkner, a spokesman for American Airlines, said they were investigating whether the plane had depressurized improperly. No other planes had been taken out of service.
And an Atlantic Southeast Airlines flight from Atlanta to Little Rock, Ark., made an emergency landing after hitting a flock of birds. None of the 48 passengers or three crew members on the regional jet were injured, and the plane was operating normally when it landed in Little Rock, said Kate Modolo, a spokeswoman for Atlantic Southeast.
CNN reported that the aircraft sustained substantial visible damage to its nose and that at least one dead crane was stuck to the front when it landed.
Regarding the Southwest incident, James E. Hall, a former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said the company worked its airplanes especially hard, scheduling flights with very quick turnaround times. “They pound their airplanes daily,” Mr. Hall said.
Two years ago, Southwest faced a similar episode when a hole ripped open in a plane’s fuselage and forced an emergency landing on a flight bound for Baltimore. Earlier that year, Southwest was fined $7.5 million for safety violations by the Federal Aviation Administration.
In 1988, a flight attendant was swept to her death and scores of passengers were injured when an Aloha Airlines Boeing 737 suffered a 20-foot rupture in its fuselage during a flight in Hawaii. The flight, carrying 89 passengers and a crew of five from Hilo to Honolulu, was at 24,000 feet when the tear occurred.
The pilots sent an emergency message to air traffic controllers and then guided the aircraft to a safe landing at the Kahului airport on the island of Maui. The right under-wing engine had been knocked out of commission by debris from the fuselage section that ripped away.
Though one flight attendant was swept from the plane, passengers held on to a second to keep her from being pulled out. Sixty passengers were injured.
Despite Friday’s episode, Mr. Hall said, “My experience with Southwest is that they have a good safety program.”
He added: “But the skin of the aircraft is like human skin. Any type of puncture is serious.”
Jad Mouawad contributed reporting.[/release]
[img]http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/04/02/us/PLANE/PLANE-popup.jpg[/img]
Ohgod, I have aviophobia. I'd have a heart-attack if this happened during a flight I was on. :ohdear:
I fly on SW a lot too. That's fucking scary.
Similar thing happened to some Aloha Airlines flight during the 80's.. Except that the hole was a bit larger.
[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/Aloha_Airlines_Flight_243_fuselage.png[/img]
Documentary on it here:
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZZHCm59gy4&feature=related[/media]
I would shit my fucking pants SO HARD if that happened to me.
If it were me I'd stick the nearest fat person in it and call it problem solved.
Hey I didn't know this plane was an opentop-OH GOD
[QUOTE=Rautatie;28953265]Similar thing happened to some Aloha Airlines flight during the 80's.. Except that the hole was a bit larger.
[img_thumb]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/Aloha_Airlines_Flight_243_fuselage.png[/img_thumb][/QUOTE]
I think I remember seeing that on Mayday (discovery channel show about planes blowing up and shit).
They have a memorial for the flight attendant that got thrown out of the plane, the cause of the hole was a loose rivet or something.
[editline]god damnit[/editline]
well fuck me sideways, someone posted the episode
Become an aircraft technician and "accidentally" forget to tighten a single rivet...
:ohdear:
[QUOTE=Nifae;28953506]Become an aircraft technician and "accidentally" forget to [b]tighten[/b] a single [b]rivet[/b]...
:ohdear:[/QUOTE]
Wat.
My stepdad's freaking out, he and my mum are flying to Phoenix on Southwest next week
[quote]
a 15-year old Boeing 737-300
[/quote]
I would think with the stresses an airplane must endure, 15 years is a bit old.
[QUOTE=SweetSwifter;28952932]Ohgod, I have aviophobia. I'd have a heart-attack if this happened during a flight I was on. :ohdear:[/QUOTE]
Why would you be on a flight in the first place?
[editline]2nd April 2011[/editline]
[QUOTE=Forumaster;28953916]I would think with the stresses an airplane must endure, 15 years is a bit old.[/QUOTE]
Not really, there are planes that are a lot older being used in daily flights, albeit not passenger flights any longer. There are planes from World War 2 still flying.
[QUOTE=Nifae;28953506]Become an aircraft technician and "accidentally" forget to tighten a single rivet...
:ohdear:[/QUOTE]
You do realize that Rivets aren't like screws right? Rivets are permanent fasteners, made of solid steel bolts. Rivets are installed generally with a Rivet Gun, which is a giant pneumatic hammer that pounds the rivet into place. Generally used on aircraft fuselages and boats to keep them solid pieces. You can't just "tighten" them.
[QUOTE=GodKing;28953965]
Not really, there are planes that are a lot older being used in daily flights, albeit not passenger flights any longer. There are planes from World War 2 still flying.[/QUOTE]
They still have Douglas WWII planes doing short distance passenger flights.
[QUOTE=toaster468;28954259]They still have Douglas WWII planes doing short distance passenger flights.[/QUOTE]
Those were two separate statements. The [i][b]short distance[/b][/i] passenger flights are exactly what I meant. The planes I was referring to in the first sentence are planes like the B-727, the last of which was built in the early '80s.
I was on a SW flight about a week ago. Good thing nothing happened.
[QUOTE=Jakobi;28953443]If it were me I'd stick the nearest fat person in it and call it problem solved.[/QUOTE]
It's unfortunate Gabe probably has his own private jets.
[QUOTE=GodKing;28953965]Why would you be on a flight in the first place?
[editline]2nd April 2011[/editline]
Not really, there are planes that are a lot older being used in daily flights, albeit not passenger flights any longer. There are planes from World War 2 still flying.[/QUOTE]
I hate people who reply acting like they know shit when they don't.
15 years old planes which are used for [b]passengers[/b] are old and are actually forbidened to use.
inb4 stress fracture
[QUOTE=MoarFunz;28954815]
15 years old planes which are used for [b]passengers[/b] are old and are actually forbidened to use.[/QUOTE]
No it's not, American and Delta still use MD-80s from the 1980s.
Lolll as I sit in front of the 24th gate at Oakland's airport getting ready to fly to Portland.
I have faith in Southwest though, but this is still scary shit nonetheless lol
Become an aircraft technician and learn what a rivet is.
:ohdear:
[QUOTE=MoarFunz;28954815]I hate people who reply acting like they know shit when they don't.
15 years old planes which are used for [b]passengers[/b] are old and are actually forbidened to use.[/QUOTE]
Planes dont go out of service due to how old it is. It is operating hours in the air. Because the cabin has to be pressurized the metal becomes fatigued. The more often you do this though (in this case, Southewst is doing this) and do multiple flights in a day, the metal becomes more fatigued faster. This causes stress on the metal and creates microfractures. These can grow and when it gets big enough, the metal rips off mid flight.
[editline]2nd April 2011[/editline]
Now they do check for microfractures and there are compounds to fill in the holes to prevent it from growing further (or they grind it down im not sure which but there is a treatment plan for them) and can fix it. But another thing Southwest does is stretch the maintenance of all their planes to the mandated limit to the day of, there is a good possibility they cant catch these fractures in time before they get too large. And because this fracture was on top of the plane, it is hard to spot without it being in a hanger for repairs.
Imma bump this now with new info
3 planes have been pulled out of service now because they found fractures. There is now no way Southwest is getting out of this without a huge fine.
It's not so much the pressurization that damages the metal, it's the sheer size of the aircraft and the wind forces it has to deal with. I doubt there are many on FP that really have an idea of how much force is put on the airplane in flight from even a light gust of wind.
Buy SW stocks NOW!.
Wouldn't depressurization have more dramatic effects?
Well that's good to know. I'll be flying on one of these in May. :gonk:
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