Did explosion cause jet hole?

The Sun ^ | 7/25/08 | STAFF REPORTER

[Lobbyist]

I was on two Southwest flights in two day when they had to abort the landing. I think it was the same pilot. My brother, who a captain for UPS, asked me if I was bucking for a world record. It has only happened to him (as a passenger) once.

[meyer]

Maybe the auto-pilot was overinflated...

[az_gila]

Holes don’t appear in jets without an explosion, so I would venture that an explosion is a good guess. And it was coming from London, Heathrow, wasn’t it?

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Not always the case... remember the 737 in Hawaii that lost the top of it's fuselage?

Too soon to jump to those conclusions. I can't tell from the pictures if that panel is removable (i.e. bolted in place) or riveted. As a previous post said, the panel came off quite cleanly.... bad/corroded rivets? ...or just poorly fastened on?

[BohDaThone]

Note that there is no attibution, and no "chiming in." The best I could find from any source was a statement from a Bangkok(!) newspaper that "someone" at TSA allegedly said, "anonymously" that "initial indications are not terrorism."

Hardly official trumpeting, even if bangkok and australian papers can be believed on this or other subjects.

[BohDaThone]

Note that there is no attibution, and no "chiming in." The best I could find from any source was a statement from a Bangkok(!) newspaper that "someone" at TSA allegedly said, "anonymously" that "initial indications are not terrorism."

Hardly official trumpeting, even if bangkok and australian papers can be believed on this or other subjects.

[Domangart]

Gee an explosive that leaves the luggage unmoved?
You just saw a storm in Texas that had 100 mph winds. This plane was doing almost 500 mph. Think.

[raybbr]

Gee an explosive that leaves the luggage unmoved?

Makes about as much sense as "This plane was doing almost 500 mph. Think."

How could a 500 mph wind NOT move the luggage?

[ReformedBeckite]

Just looking at some other pictures on the Internet and taking a good educated guess I'll say it was one thing led to another, first the sheet metal panel came off, and then the next layer was breached.

My first guess is that wing wasn't attached as good as it should be. I noticed the first sheet metal layer pretty much came off as a whole unit except for a small pieces toward the front and up aways, . I think if it was an explosion, it would of punched a hole through the sheet metal instead of taking the whole panel off.

My second thought is that this panel could of been taken off for maintenance at one time and never put back in place properly with the correct screws, rivets, etc, or the screws, rivets, etc are not holding up, but I would hope the second layer would be able to hold. Never the less what ever the cause I'm sure the pajamas patrol will reveal more out of this event then they will want to admit.

[null and void]

Holes don’t appear in jets without an explosion

This one did:

[gathersnomoss]

So much for the first class seating, but what a view. If only you could remove the steel fuselage fragments from your eyes.

[buccaneer81]

There’s a hole where there shouldn’t be.”

Only a Brit could say that with a straight face!

[Calm_Cool_and_Elected]

I hate flying. Me too. My arms get so tired...

LOL! You got me!

CC&E

[null and void]

;^)

More seriously the only part of the flight I hate is the take-off.

I'm never quite sure the airplane will end up in the air.

Once it's in the air I can relax.

Because I'm certain it will end up on the ground...

[Domangart]

It pushed it to the rear of the container. The first row went outside as did the skin of the container. Note one piece left in the picture. This is not the first time this has happened. I was on a Pan Am that lost an entire wing flap.