Southwest Cancels Flights As FAA Demands Inspections Of Older 737s
 

By the CNN Wire Staff
April 4, 2011 5:49 p.m. EDT

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Hole forces a Boeing 737 to land.

(CNN) -- Just days after a Boeing 737 flown by Southwest Airlines made an emergency landing with a hole in its fuselage, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a press release Monday that it will mandate operators of about 175 specific older Boeing 737s to conduct inspections for wear and tear.
The FAA said the "emergency directive" it plans to issue on Tuesday would affect about 80 U.S.-registered 737-300s, 737-400s and 737-500s, mostly operated by Southwest. The remaining 95 or so aircraft are registered outside the United States. Each of the 175 or so planes in question have taken off and landed more than 30,000 times and will receive repetitive electromagnetic inspections at regular intervals for fatigue damage.
In a separate statement, Boeing said it was working with the FAA, the National Transportation Safety Board and Southwest, and it was preparing a service bulletin to recommend lap-joint inspections on certain 737 models.
The chairman on the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation said in a statement that the American public wants answers to retain confidence in commercial air travel.
"As the details of this unusual incident unfold, we will get a better understanding of what caused the plane's fuselage to tear open," said Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-West Virginia. "I expect the FAA to be painstakingly diligent in reviewing the safety of all aircraft, and to conduct a careful investigation into what caused the cracks that have been discovered on the bodies of these planes."

Rockefeller took advantage of the occasion to renew his call for reauthorizing the FAA.
"The FAA reauthorization bill now headed to conference takes steps to strengthen the inspection process of passenger aircraft, and I hope we can move that bill quickly to a resolution," he said.
Southwest canceled 70 flights on its Monday schedule as investigators inspected its fleet, the airline said.
As planes are cleared, they will be put back into service, Southwest said. The airline recommended that customers should check with the website SWA.com for the status of a particular flight or rebook a trip before heading to the airport.
On Friday, the Texas-based airline grounded 79 planes for inspection after a hole opened in the fuselage of Flight 812 in midflight en route from Phoenix to Sacramento, California.
The airline canceled about 600 flights to accommodate the inspections: 300 on Saturday and 300 flights on Sunday.
So far, investigators have found indications of cracks in three other aircraft, the National Transportation Safety Board said Sunday.
Of the planes inspected, 19 had returned to service by Sunday afternoon, the airline said.
Inspections of the aircraft are expected to be completed by late Tuesday.
Eighteen minutes into Flight 812 on Friday, a hole 5 feet long and 1 foot wide opened in the fuselage, causing the cabin to lose pressure, the safety board said.
One flight attendant received minor injuries, the agency said.
The pilot initially planned to return to Phoenix, but he made an emergency landing at a military base in Yuma, Arizona, after flight attendants reported seeing blue sky through the jet's roof, the safety board's Robert Sumwalt told reporters.
Some of the 118 passengers who were aboard the crippled Boeing 737 said they feared for their lives.
"We were in shock," passenger Debbie Downey said Saturday. "We were in row 16, and my husband and I could see blue sky ... the wiring, the cabling. It actually was terrifying."
Greg Hansen said fellow passengers panicked and screamed as the sun shone through the cabin.
"Most people were just white knuckles, holding on to the arm rests," he said.
The airline said it provided a full refund, an apology and two complimentary round-trip passes on the airline for future flights.
In July 2009, another Southwest Airlines 737-300 made an emergency landing when cabin pressure dropped because of a football-size hole in the jet. That incident prompted the airline to inspect its entire fleet of 737-300s.
Earlier that same year, the airline was fined $7.5 million by the FAA after the agency found that Southwest operated 46 of its Boeing 737s on nearly 60,000 flights without performing mandatory inspections for fatigue cracks in their fuselages.
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