Southwest Convertible.....

[Rabbi O'Genius]

Holed Southwest Airlines flight makes emergency landing

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12945453

[Not_Karl]

Passengers said they were happy to be alive

Interesting...

[3WE]

It wasn't an emergency. Unlike other airlines, WN is always working on creative customer service and IFE. The marketing department will promote this based on the "Feel free to move about the country" phrase and the new phrase will be "Feel free to feel free from a traditional space-cramped airliners of our inferior and unwise competitors". We are working on similar features for the B717's well be getting from AirTran

[Gabriel]

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zht ... highlight=

After the plane landed safely in Yuma, the crew confirmed a hole in the top of the aircraft, approximately mid-cabin.

"We have launched personnel to Yuma to begin the investigation process with the NTSB, FAA, and appropriate parties to determine the cause of the depressurization."

What could have caused the depressurization? Hmmmm, that's a tough one. Maybe the hole in the fuselage had something to do with it?
(now, if the question was what caused the fuselage to fail...)

[3WE]

We need to start watching how spin doctors, lawyers and policies handle incidents like this now that we are in the cellphone video camera age.

There's fine print that you can take incidental photographs/movies on a plane, but some funny language that media that captures personnel, procedures, etc, is not allowed.

So far, we see some really crummy photographs- you can see that something broke, but not a lot of detail as to where, if we are talking about a "crack" or if a section of skin genuinely departed the plane.

You think there's some SWA staff sitting on youtube entering "Southwest, hole in plane" and hitting the search button every five seconds? and if they have the keys to youtube to kill any such posting within seconds of discovering it?

[Dummy Pilot]

The photo above is from an SWA 737-300 that opened up a 'skyroof' two years ago along with rapid decompression and emergency landing at Charleston WV. If it happens once, it's pure bad luck.....if it happens twice, it's called a trend.

I'd be interested to know if the latest incident is on one of the older 737s and just how many cycles they get from SWA's numerous short legs

[Gabriel]

So far, we see some really crummy photographs- you can see that something broke, but not a lot of detail as to where, if we are talking about a "crack" or if a section of skin genuinely departed the plane.

Not clearly showing the full extent of the damage, but certainly more than just crack.

[David Hilditch]

I'd be interested to know if the latest incident is on one of the older 737s and just how many cycles they get from SWA's numerous short legs

DP, aircraft first flew 1996 (Southwest has a few 737s going back to 1984 and many others dating from the 1980s). Another forum suggests 39,768 cycles and 48,722 hours. I do not think that is especially high for a 737 that age, but it does seem fairly high cycles per hour.

[3WE]

According to headlines:

Plane grounded before.

Widespread cracking in the aircraft.

Sort of getting an inference that we slap some bondo, duct tape and some reinforcement brackets and put them back into the air.

By the way, I blame Murph's law and ITS....all that bashing of cheap french composites....well, now we have issues with boeing metallic alloys!

[flyboy2548m]

I understand Evan has placed WN on his no-fly list. Because of that, him and Deaf Alex are no longer friends.

[Rabbi O'Genius]

Cracks found in three more Southwest Airlines 737-300s

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12954335

[PurduePilot]

I understand Evan has placed WN on his no-fly list. Because of that, him and Deaf Alex are no longer friends.

This post is grammatically flawed.

[OldSowBreath]

Me understand Evan has placed WN on his no-fly list. Because of that, him and Deaf Alex are no longer friends.

Fixed.

[Verbal]

40k flights is middle aged for a 737, which has a design service objective of 75k flights. As David noted, there are a lot of 737s flying with far more cycles, so it will be interesting to see what the investigators come up with. I suggest we avoid speculation and wait for the final report to come out.

[Sickbag]

This just proves once again that Boeings are a peeling.

[Rabbi O'Genius]

FAA issues directive to inspect 175 737s in the next 5 days.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12975999

[3WE]

The ironing would be pretty good if the passengers were given one of the classic, comical SWA safety briefings.

In the unlikely event of cabin depressurization (believe me, if it was likely, we would not have come to work today), oxygen masks will descend from the panel above your seat. To use them 1) Stop screaming, 2) place the mask over your face, 3) make breathing sounds like Darth Vader or a Scuba mask. If you are traveling with small children, secure your mask first. If you are traveling with 2 small children, decide now, which one you like more.

[OldSowBreath]

Yep - in the olden days, I, lowly pax, was allowed to stand up and pantomine the safety instructions for the cabin as the hostie gave them.

[Giles]

[Sir Gallivant]

I didn't know that the inventor of the pull tab had been an employee at the Boeing design department

[GlennAB1]

Typical Lapseam lower fastener row cracking... should have never gotten to that point... I'd expect big fines...

[Giles]

I'd expect big fines...

levied upon who?

[Verbal]

Whom.

[Giles]

on first

[GlennAB1]

Boing..... of course