Metal fatigue caused a hole in the hull of a Southwest Airlines Co. plane, forcing the jet to make an emergency landing last year, a U.S. safety board concluded.
The opening, 18 inches (46 centimeters) by 12 inches, formed at 35,000 feet in the top of the fuselage near the tail and led the jet to lose pressure and deploy its oxygen masks. “Continuous fatigue cracks” on the inside of the fuselage helped create the hole, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a report adopted yesterday.
The Boeing Co. 737, which took off from Nashville, Tennessee, en route to Baltimore, landed July 13, 2009, in Charleston, West Virginia. None of the 131 passengers or crew was injured.
Boeing recommended in September 2009 that carriers inspect fuselages for cracks, and the Federal Aviation Administration adopted a rule in January requiring the checks on 135 Boeing 737-300s, -400s and -500s in the U.S. After further analysis, the Chicago-based planemaker updated that service bulletin in June of this year, urging airlines to expand the inspection areas and increase the frequency.
“We’ve been working with the FAA and our customers to address the fatigue issue,” said Boeing spokeswoman Vicki Ray in Renton, Washington, where the planes are built.
Boeing expects the FAA to mandate the new revision as well, requiring carriers to inspect at 33,000 cycles instead of the previous 35,000 and to inspect more areas that have similar configuration, Ray said in an interview. A cycle is one takeoff and landing.
‘Full Compliance’
“We are in full compliance” with the Boeing and FAA steps, Brad Hawkins, a spokesman for Dallas-based Southwest, said in an e-mail. “We worked closely with investigators throughout this process and we concur with their conclusions.”
The 737-300 series jet, manufactured in 1994, was older than the 10.5-year average for Southwest’s fleet, according to the FAA and an airline fact sheet. Southwest 737-300s are 18 years old, on average, according to a company regulatory filing.
In March 2009, Southwest agreed to pay a $7.5 million fine for flying jets in 2006 and 2007 without some required fuselage inspections. It was the FAA’s largest fine against an airline.
Southwest fell 34 cents, or 3 percent, to $11.20 at 4:15 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.
To contact the reporter on this reporter: John Hughes in Washington at Jhughes5@bloomberg.net
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