F.Y.I. Cracks Found in 5 Airplanes

According to the New York Times, Southwest Airlines said on Tuesday that it had completed inspections of its older Boeing 737s and had found small cracks in a total of five passenger planes.  The airline conducted the inspections after a hole tore open the roof of one of its 737s on Friday on flight from Phoenix to Sacramento, forcing the airplane to make an emergency landing at a military base.

Friday‘s incident has prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to say that it would issue a directive requiring all airlines to inspect some older-model Boeing 737s for cracks in the skin that can be caused by pressurization and depressurization of the cabin over thousands of takeoffs and landings. Boeing, the manufacturer, said it was also recommending that airlines inspect the areas where the skin covers joints on the older 737 models.

Southwest canceled about 670 flights over the weekend and on Monday while it inspected nearly 80 aircraft. On Tuesday, a Southwest spokeswoman, Whitney Eichinger, said the airline had resumed full scheduling of its 3,400 daily flights, despite the absence of the five planes taken out of service.

“We are waiting for further instructions from Boeing on how to complete the repairs,” Ms. Eichinger said.

Friday’s crack was at least the third involving metal fatigue in the last few years, and the most terrifying. The others involved another Southwest 737-300 flight in 2009 and an American Airlines Boeing 757 last year.

The recent string of similar problems has baffled safety experts who said the industry assumed it had successfully resolved the problem of metal fatigue after an accident in 1988 involving a 737 jet flown by Aloha Airlines. During the flight, an 18-foot section of the forward cabin ripped open and a flight attendant was blown out of the plane.

The F.A.A. announcement applies to 175 aircraft worldwide, including 80 that are based in the United States, most of them operated by Southwest.

Full article from New York Times