Plane makes safe landing with football-size hole in fuselage

[jimntx]

SW flight enroute from BNA to BWI developed football-sized hole in cabin roof. Cabin depressurized. No injuries. Cause unknown at this point.

story here

 

[Rogallo]

Anybody got any pictures? Please post.

 

[autofixer]

A little better picture in this article:

http://www.wvgazette.com/News/200907130598

It sounds like the crew did a great job, as usual in these cases.

 

[UAL_TECH]

MSNBC

Thank GOD no one was hurt!

B) xUT

 

[jimntx]

On the news portion of the Today show this morning, they reported this incident. The most telling thing I heard was "Southwest spent the night checking their entire fleet." I never ceased to be amazed at what a good airline WN is and how good their employees are at their jobs--especially the flight attendants.

 

[balloonguy]

Does anyone know yet what the tail number was?

 

[hp_fa]

First, kudos to the crew for not making this a really bad situation.

Second, the pictures seem to show a non-ragged hole, almost as if some rivets or fasteners failed along a small squarish panel. Or am I looking at this incorrectly?

 

[Borescope]

The most telling thing I heard was "Southwest spent the night checking their entire fleet." I never ceased to be amazed at what a good airline WN is...

That is telling Jim.........

No other airline presented with this same problem would check there airplanes, and certainly the employees wouldn't do anywhere near the job the employees did.

Job job WN,


You're a one of a kind airline.

 

[Docker]

I would think it would take longer than overnight to perform a NDT inspection, say Eddy Current, from the inside of the aircraft for their entire fleet. Now, if they were just looking for a hole........

 

[SharoninSAT]

Thank God the plane landed safely
and no one was injured.

Sharon

 

[phllax]

Wasn't there an Eastern 727 that had a similar sized hole open in roughly the same location that also landed in CRW?

 

[Atlantic]

I think the was a push for a m.x default of about 8mil. to the FAA, and they still didn't get right.

 

[insp89]

First, kudos to the crew for not making this a really bad situation.

Second, the pictures seem to show a non-ragged hole, almost as if some rivets or fasteners failed along a small squarish panel. Or am I looking at this incorrectly?

Could this be a previously installed Doubler Repair ?

 

[hp_fa]

Could this be a previously installed Doubler Repair ?

I don't know if that area contains an access panel of some kind or what. That is why I asked the question.

 

[UAL_TECH]

I don't know if that area contains an access panel of some kind or what. That is why I asked the question.

It was a mistake.
PTO tried to lead his El Salvadorian crew to patch this 'thingy' but ran out of liquid steel, overdrilled the holes and put in buck rivits. Slapped on some elephant snot, repainted and 'let her fly'....
(Satire inserted here <<<---)
xUT