JULY 2009

B737-300 hole in fuselage. A small-sized hole opened located approximately mid-cabin, near the top of the aircraft causing the aircraft to decompress at 30,000 ft.

Southwest inspected all 181 B737-300s overnight with minimum impact on their schedule for today.

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Headline News was last updated: January 4, 2010

Service

Guide.

M

Box 1

Southwest issued an official statement on its blog on July 13th 2009 as follows:

All 126 passengers and crew of five onboard landed safely and are awaiting a replacement aircraft in Charleston that will take them to Baltimore/Washington International Airport later this evening.

Box 2:

According to initial crew reports, the depressurization appears to be related to a small-sized hole located approximately mid-cabin, near the top of the aircraft.

In March of 2008, Southwest removed 38 aircraft from service after allegations it had violated FAA regulations. In March of 2007, the airline reported to the FAA that it had not done required fuselage checks on 47 jets. Some versions of the B737 are vulnerable to cracks just above and below the windows. Southwest Airlines is sending its maintenance personnel to Charleston to assess the aircraft, and the airline will work with the NTSB to determine the cause of the depressurization.

Box 3

Documents at the time alleged that the airline flew at least 117 of its planes in violation of mandatory safety checks. In some cases, the planes flew for 30 months after government inspection deadlines had passed and should have been grounded until the inspections could be completed.

Update(10:14PM EST, July 13th 2009): Southwest announced via Twitter it would be inspecting all 181 737-300s as a precaution overnight with minimum impact on their schedule for tomorrow.

Inside cabin view of the hole in the Southwest B737-300 fuselage ceiling.

Outside top-fuselage view of the hole in the Southwest B737-300 fuselage.

Long view of the outside top-fuselage indicating the position of the hole in the Southwest B737-300 fuselage

Video source: John Benson video as published by CBS

Accidents 2009: 30 fatal multi-engine aircraft accident worldwide resulted in 758 fatalities according to the Aviation Safety Network (ASN).

Accident source: Five out of 30 accidents involved aircraft operated by airlines on the E.U. "black list" vs. 9 of 26 in 2007 & 3 of 32 in 2008. (ASA)

Accident locations: Africa was the unsafest region in 2009 with 30% of all fatal aircraft accidents & it accounts for 3% of all world aircraft departures.

Accident rate: The ten-year aircraft accident average is 802 fatalities annually (ASN).

A review of all thirty fatal airliner accidents, including some statistics can be found at http://aviation-safety.net/2009/

 

Harro Ranter

the Aviation Safety Network

e-mail: hr@aviation-safety.net

January 2010

A330 pitot tube repair recommendations are inadequate and system-wide failures will persist, with dangerous consequences for passengers.

A330 pitot tube: Known safety deficiencies can lead to blockage of the A330 speed sensors due to icing according tom the Air France pilots union.

American Airlines safety: FAA will increase oversight of American Airlines because of three mishaps in less than a month.

American Airlines aircraft overshot a runway in Jamaica on 22 December and aircraft wingtips touched the ground on landings twice in December.

American Airlines records: The FAA will examine aircraft records, pilot training methods, and increase cockpit inspections.

American Airlines – consequences: The FAA can impose a heavy fine if the incidents under review prove to be cases of systematic weaknesses.