Naw, nuttin toworry about...
MIke
Posted on 03/13/2008 11:11:48 AM PDT by Dysart
Southwest Airlines discovered fuselage cracks on four of the airplanes that it grounded for inspections Wednesday, the airline said today.
The Dallas-based carrier took 38 Boeing 737 planes out of service to check for cracks in the exterior above and below passenger windows. It also checked five planes that were already parked for maintenance, and one plane that had recently been retired from the fleet.
A spokeswoman said that 34 of the planes passed the inspections and were returned to service today.
"Four were held for surface repairs, and we expect to have them back in service by the weekend," said spokeswoman Brandy King.
Southwest parked the jets in the wake of a congressional investigation into its airplane inspections. The FAA proposed a record $10.2 million fine last week against the carrier for failing to ground dozens of jets last year after it discovered they had not been examined for potentially dangerous fuselage cracks.
Congress is also investigating whether some FAA officials allowed the airlines to keep the planes in service for up to 10 days despite the inspection lapse.
The airline said Tuesday that it suspended three of its employees in the wake of an internal investigation, and is auditing its inspection records. That review unocovered an additional inspection lapse, which prompted Wednesday’s decision to ground the planes.
Discuss
I wonder if they will cover that on next months Airline show?
I fly SW at least once a week. Should I be concerned?
As long as the problem is corrected I’m fine. They will probably be the safest airline to fly for awhile. I’m figuring they aren’t the only airline guilty of this sort of thing. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad they were caught and fined. But I’ll still use their airline.
Not anymore, they’ll have the most inspected fleet in the air after this.
If the rates come down I’ll continue to fly S/W.
This is more about union politicking than safety. More about FAA vs airline nonsense.
Airline that fly upside down up have crack up...or something like that :-)
Naw, nuttin toworry about...
MIke
That wasn’t an SWA plane. :P
Probably not anymore. Anyway it was just the older 737-300 and 737-500 models that were affected. The 500's are mostly used for short hops that go through DAL. There are also some 300's that go through Texas and neighboring states. The 300's are also used for intra California flights. All of Southwest's longer hauls are on 737-700's that aren't affected by the inspection problems.
Since SW is one of the few airlines that is making a profit and doing well without a union, it is incumbant on the government to do something to put it out of business.
Now that scares the h*ll out of me!
Are the 700’s the ones with the tip that goes at the end of the wing?
All the 700's in Southwest's fleet have winglets, but about 100 of the 300's will be getting winglets too and may already have them. You can tell the difference between the 300 and 700 by the ailerons. The 300 wing was derived from the original 100/200 wing, so it has a gap in the ailerons where the exhaust from the Pratt and Whitney JT8D engines mounted under the wing would pass by. The wing was totally redesigned for the "Next Generation" 737's, and there is no gap in the ailerons of the 600-900 modlels. The 500 is shorter and seats the same number of passengers as the old 200's that were retired a couple of years ago.
BUMP!
Heck, just watch Airline. What you need to be afraid of is your fellow passengers.
Thanks so much. Ya know there was a time I could not even get on an airplane. Then I graduated to taking drugs before a flight. Now I sleep (without drugs) through the flight.
You can understand my concern.
I don’t want to revisit my former self. Thank you again.
Absolutely NOT. Southwest is one of the safest if not the safest airlines flying.
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