The Seattle Sun Times
Three more Southwest Airlines planes have been found with small, subsurface cracks similar to the ones that caused a jetliner to lose pressure and make a harrowing emergency landing in Arizona.
Three more Southwest Airlines planes have been found with small, subsurface cracks similar to the ones that caused a jetliner to lose pressure and make a harrowing emergency landing in Arizona.
Southwest said in a statement Sunday that it had found cracks in two Boeing 737-300s. A National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) member later said a third plane was discovered to have the cracks as well.
NTSB member Robert Sumwalt said Boeing is developing a “service bulletin” strongly suggesting immediate checks on all similar models with comparable flight time and age.
A Boeing 737-300 carrying 118 people to Sacramento, Calif., on Friday rapidly lost cabin pressure after the plane’s fuselage ruptured — causing a 5-foot-long tear — just after takeoff from Phoenix. Pilots made a controlled descent into a military base near Yuma, 150 miles southwest of Phoenix.
The tear, along a riveted “lap joint,” shows evidence of extensive cracking that hadn’t been discovered during routine maintenance before Friday’s flight — and probably wouldn’t have been unless mechanics specifically had looked for it, officials said.
NTSB investigators were in Yuma on Sunday to oversee removal of the top section of the jetliner’s roof around the tear. The structure will be sent to Washington, D.C., for analysis.
Southwest spokeswoman Beth Harbin said the airline would not comment on the board’s findings.
“We won’t be able to add anything,” she said in an email. “We’re participating in the investigation and conducting our own inspections on several other aircraft.”
Southwest canceled about 600 flights over the weekend “to accommodate aircraft inspections” of 79 planes, its website said.
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