15 JUL 2009 _______________________________________ *Southwest Airlines 737-300 Depressurizes In-Flight *Southwest Hasn't Found Flaws in 737 Checks After Hole in Jet *Southwest inspections uncover no additional 737-300 fuselage issues *Southwest Incident Renews Maintenance Worries *FAA, NTSB probe hole in Southwest 737 *Southwest flight makes emergency landing *NTSB Issues Safety Recommendation For 767 Oxygen Systems *Garuda, Airfast, Mandala, Premiair taken off EU black list *EC says Africa must improve aviation safety *Jury awards $11.4 million after helicopter crash *TAAG limited to 777 operations in Europe **************************************** Southwest Airlines 737-300 Depressurizes In-Flight NTSB Sends Investigative Team To West Virginia The NTSB is dispatching investigators to look at a Southwest Airlines jet that made an emergency landing in West Virginia yesterday after a hole opened in the body of the plane and the cabin lost pressure. At 1807 EDT, a Southwest flight 2294, 737-300 (N387SW), from Nashville headed to Baltimore Washington International Airport experienced rapid decompression. The crew declared an emergency and landed at Yeager Airport in Charleston, West Virginia. On examination, a one foot hole was discovered in the top of the fuselage. There were no injuries reported. Senior Aviation investigator Bob Benzon will lead the team. According to FAA registration records, the aircraft was manufactured in 1994 and has been in service since receiving an airworthiness certificate in June of that year. That could indicate a high number of cycles for the airplane which can cause fatigue. Investigators will make a determination about stress to the aircraft and whether it was a contributing factor in the incident. A passenger on board the flight told the Associated Press that he had to calm his children after a fairly rough takeoff. That same passenger told the news service that "Literally the whole top of the plane ripped off." He also recorded video of the hole in the roof using his cell phone. The incident occurred about 30 minutes after the plane departed from Nashville. A replacement plane took the passengers on to Baltimore from West Virginia. FMI: www.ntsb.gov aero-news.net *************** Southwest Hasn't Found Flaws in 737 Checks After Hole in Jet July 14 (Bloomberg) -- Southwest Airlines Co. said it has found no flaws so far during inspections for metal weakness on all 181 of its Boeing Co. 737-300 jets after a hole about a foot wide opened in a plane's fuselage, forcing an emergency landing. The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board investigators will examine the jet, said Les Dorr, an FAA spokesman. The agency will check whether Southwest complied with any safety directives regarding the area of the plane with the hole, which appears to be about 1 foot (0.3 meter) by 1 foot, he said. "There's really no way to speculate on what caused it right now," Dorr said. "It certainly is an unusual occurrence." All 126 passengers and 5 crew were safe after landing in Charleston, West Virginia, on the flight yesterday from Nashville, Tennessee, Marilee McInnis, a spokeswoman for the Dallas-based carrier, said today. The jet lost pressure about 30 minutes after taking off at about 4:30 p.m. local time, causing oxygen masks to deploy. The plane involved is 15 years old, more than the company's average aircraft age of 10 years, and the area where the hole formed was last inspected on Jan. 9, McInnis said. "Nothing like this has ever happened at Southwest before," McInnis said. The hole formed between the tail and the middle of the cabin near the top of the fuselage, McInnis said. She said there were no reports of an explosion on the 137-seat plane. Southwest, founded 38 years ago, has 544 jets in its fleet, all belonging to Boeing's 737 line. One-third of them are 737- 300s with an average age of 17.7 years, according to the carrier's regulatory filings. Penalty Assessed Southwest agreed this year to pay a $7.5 million penalty for flying jets without fuselage inspections in 2006 and 2007. The FAA said that Southwest operated 46 planes on 59,791 flights without full checks for cracks. Southwest has said safety wasn't compromised by flying the planes. Boeing staff is being sent to West Virginia to assist in the investigation, said Sandra Angers, a spokeswoman in Seattle. She declined to comment on whether similar cases have developed with the aircraft, referring accident questions to the NTSB. Southwest passengers have an average trip length of 855 miles, compared to 1,090 miles for all U.S. airlines, according to data by Southwest and the U.S. Department of Transportation. "The more cycles you fly, the more times you pressurize the plane and thump it down for landings, and that tends to put more wear and tear on the airplane," said Fred Kline, president of Aviation Specialists Group, a Herndon, Virginia, company that assists companies in valuing and inspecting aircraft. Qantas Explosion McInnis said she didn't immediately know the relative wear of the plane that developed the hole. Southwest rose 2 cents, less than 1 percent, to $6.82 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. About two-thirds of Southwest's fleet is made up of 737- 700s, which have an average age of 5.5 years and reduce the overall average fleet age, the company's filing shows. In July 2008, a Qantas Airways Ltd. Boeing 747-400 made an emergency landing in Manila after an oxygen tank exploded, sending fragments of the cylinder from the cargo bay into the cabin and punctured the jet's body. All 346 passengers and 19 crew were unharmed when the Qantas plane descended from 29,000 feet (8,800 meters) to 10,000 feet, the altitude at which oxygen can be breathed normally. In 1988, a flight attendant was sucked out of an Aloha Airlines Boeing 737 when an 18-foot section of fuselage ripped open, causing an emergency landing. The NTSB later said that metal fatigue and inspection deficiencies, exacerbated by the high frequency of pressurization cycles for Aloha's short-haul flights, led to failure of bonding of joints in the aircraft, causing "premature fatigue cracking." http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aAUNtGvAnEOI ************** Southwest inspections uncover no additional 737-300 fuselage issues Southwest Airlines found no fuselage issues during inspections of its Boeing 737-300 fleet following the emergency landing of one such aircraft after its cabin depressurized on 13 July. Overnight and early morning inspections delayed roughly 20 morning flights today for an average of 30 minutes, a Southwest spokeswoman says, adding that inspections "did not find any issues on any of the aircraft". The low-cost carrier's findings come as investigators from the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) examine the emergency landing, which occurred at Yeager airport in Charleston, West Virginia. The aircraft was en route from Nashville to Baltimore Washington International airport when it experienced rapid decompression around 30min into the 16:05EST service. Upon examination after the emergency landing, a 1ft hole was discovered in the top of the fuselage. During a conference call today to discuss the Senate version of FAA Reauthorization, the head of the chamber's Commerce and Transportation Committee John Rockefeller said FAA was updating legislators on the incident later today. He characterised the incident as a "very odd situation". Source: Air Transport Intelligence news *************** Southwest Incident Renews Maintenance Worries Jet Makes Emergency Landing After Hole Appears in Fuselage; Transportation Safety Board Is InvestigatingArticle Video Comments more in Business >Email Printer Federal aviation investigators are examining a Southwest Airlines Co. airplane that developed a one-foot-wide hole in its main body midflight, a setback for the discount airline just four months after it agreed to pay a $7.5 million civil fine for maintenance lapses. The Boeing 737 jet was heading to Baltimore from Nashville on Monday carrying 126 passengers and five crew members at an altitude of about 30,000 feet when a hole developed at the top of the fuselage, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing in Charleston, W.Va., as the cabin rapidly lost air pressure, according to the National Transportation Safety Board and Southwest. Hole in Plane Forces Emergency Landing 1:42 Southwest Airlines is inspecting its planes after a hole ripped through a plane during a flight on Monday. Video courtesy of Fox News. The company, based in Dallas, said no one was injured. Southwest visually inspected all 181 of its 737-300 airplanes Monday night after the incident but said it didn't find any structural problems. The planes continued flying Tuesday. Investigators from the NTSB, Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing Co. have been dispatched to the scene. Authorities declined to speculate Tuesday on possible causes and said it could take weeks or months before they issue findings. "We inspect our aircraft on a routine basis and have an excellent safety record," Southwest said in a statement. People familiar with the investigation said the tear occurred near the tail of the airplane, where navigation antennas are often mounted. That part of the fuselage typically has a small plate the size of a football that is connected to the rest of the fuselage and may have come loose, they added. Such a rupture would be less dangerous than a fault line along other parts of the fuselage where large pieces of metal skin overlap, according to Kirk Koenig, president of Expert Aviation Consulting in Indianapolis. "It's not like a tear which starts and you don't know where it ends," he said. An investigator looks at a hole on top of a Southwest Airlines plane that was forced to make an emergency landing in Charleston, W.V., on Monday. Southwest agreed in March to pay the second-largest civil penalty ever against a carrier after the FAA initially proposed a $10.2 million fine for missed inspections. Regulators said Southwest knowingly flew 46 of its older 737s on nearly 60,000 flights between June 2006 and March 2007 without performing necessary structural inspections. Les Dorr, an FAA spokesman, said Tuesday that the civil penalty was tied to fuselage inspections on the sides of the airplanes, not the top of the fuselage that caused Monday's problem. The lapses surfaced in March 2008, after Southwest voluntarily disclosed them to FAA inspectors. Southwest said Tuesday it carried out a visual inspection of all its 737-300 planes overnight "in an abundance of caution" and that it is working with federal authorities to pinpoint what caused the small rupture. The affected Southwest airplane was built in 1994, which isn't particularly old for a 737-300. Southwest said the airplane had its most recent routine inspection earlier this month and that the portion of the airplane that suffered the rupture had last been fully inspected in January. Aviation experts said fuselage cracks that cause decompression, as happened in Monday's incident, are extremely rare. The last major incident occurred in 1989, when a 10-foot by 40-foot section of the fuselage on a Boeing 747 jet came apart during a United Airlines flight near Honolulu, Hawaii. Nine people were swept from the New Zealand-bound flight. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124759883646340515.html?mod=googlenews_wsj ***************** FAA, NTSB probe hole in Southwest 737 The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating to determine what caused rippage on the ceiling of a Southwest Boeing 737 that forced the plane to make an emergency landing Monday evening. Lynn Lunsford, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said the NTSB is taking the lead in the investigation, but both agencies are looking into the incident. The plane was flying from Nashville to Baltimore and made an emergency landing in Charleston, W. Va., around 5:10 p.m. on Monday when a piece of the plane's fuselage tore away from the aircraft, leaving a hole the size of a football, the FAA confirmed. Lunsford said the football-size hole was located near an overhead baggage bin toward the back of the plane over the aisle. The hole was visible from the cabin, and the natural process of decompression at 34,000 feet caused the plane's oxygen masks to fall down as pilots made an emergency landing. After the incident, Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) said it was inspecting other jets. The airline flies Boeing (NYSE: BA) planes exclusively and has 181 737-300 jets in its fleet. The airline also flies two other 737 models: the 737-500 and the 737-700. A spokeswoman for Southwest said Tuesday all of the 737-300s were inspected last night during nonoperating hours. The inspections were completed by maintenance crews before the airlines' scheduled flights took off Tuesday morning. The spokeswoman said a "cause" has yet to be determined. In all, 126 passengers and five crew members were aboard the plane. The Boeing Co. 737 was built in Renton in 1994, making it 15 years old, according to the FAA. Lunsford said "it's hard to say what might have cause" the problem at this point. The NTSB and the FAA will investigate all possibilities, he said, including metal fatigue or the possibility of external damage to the aircraft. Lunsford said the hole was rectangular in shape and located right where the tail section begins to rise. Planes, he said, are generally built in a manner where every few inches there is a rib or an enforcement to preserve the aircraft's strength. He added that when metal fails, it typically stops at the next strong point in the aircraft's design. Earlier this year, the Dallas Business Journal reported that Southwest Airlines agreed to pay a $7.5 million civil penalty to the FAA. The FAA said Southwest (NYSE: LUV) agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle the case, but added that the amount could double if the airline failed to meet safety improvements outlined by the two parties in an agreement signed this year. This agreement was the result of a $10.2 million civil penalty the FAA proposed for Southwest in March of 2008 after investigating the airline for operating 59,791 flights on 46 planes without checking the fuselage for what is known as fatigue cracking - or threats to the skin of the aircraft. Lunsford with the FAA said investigators will check any airworthiness directives that applied to the aircraft involved in Monday's incident. "They'll look at which airworthiness directives affected this aircraft, were they done, did they apply to what occurred here," he said. Lunsford said if not, investigators will try to determine what additional steps may need to be taken. http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2009/07/13/daily20.html **************** Southwest flight makes emergency landing ORLANDO, Fla.(AP) - A Southwest Airlines flight has made an emergency landing at Orlando International Airport, but no problems have been found with the plane on the ground. Flight 3238 from St. Louis was about 10 minutes away from landing in Orlando on Tuesday morning when there was an indication of fire in the Boeing 737's auxiliary power unit. An airport spokeswoman says a fire rescue crew team boarded the plane once it was on the ground but found no fire or smoke. As a precaution, the plane's 129 passengers got off the plane on the runway rather than at the gate. There were no injuries and no impact on operations at the airport. ***************** NTSB Issues Safety Recommendation For 767 Oxygen Systems Probable Cause Of San Francisco Ground Fire Was Wiring Near O2 System The NTSB has issued a safety recommendation for Boeing 767 aircraft based on a fire that badly damaged a cargo aircraft in San Francisco last year. The 14 page document reads, in part: "On June 28, 2008, about 2215 Pacific daylight time, an ABX Air Boeing 767-200, N799AX, operating as flight 1611 from San Francisco International Airport (SFO), San Francisco, California, experienced a ground fire before engine startup. The captain and the first officer evacuated the airplane through the cockpit windows and were not injured, and the airplane was substantially damaged. At the time of the fire, the airplane was parked near a loading facility, all of the cargo to be transported on the flight had been loaded, and the doors had been shut. The NTSB determined that the probable cause of this accident was the design of the supplemental oxygen system hoses and the lack of positive separation between electrical wiring and electrically conductive oxygen system components. The lack of positive separation allowed a short circuit to breach a combustible oxygen hose, release oxygen, and initiate a fire in the supernumerary compartment that rapidly spread to other areas. Contributing to this accident was the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) failure to require the installation of nonconductive oxygen hoses after the safety issue concerning conductive hoses was initially identified by Boeing." There is a lengthy list of recommendations for the FAA from the NTSB regarding this incident. Among them: Require operators to replace electrically conductive combustible oxygen hoses with electrically nonconductive hoses so that the internal hose spring cannot be energized. (A-09-43) Prohibit the use of electrically conductive combustible oxygen hoses unless the conductivity of the hose is an intentional and approved parameter in the design. (A-09-44) Formalize the airworthiness directive process so that, when an aircraft manufacturer or other source identifies an airworthiness issue with an appliance, coordination with the appliance manufacturer occurs to ensure that the possible safety risks to all products using the appliance are evaluated and addressed. (A-09-45) Require airplane manufacturers and modifiers to provide positive separation between electrical wiring and oxygen system tubing according to, at a minimum, the guidance in Advisory Circular (AC) 43.13-1A, "Acceptable Methods, Techniques, and Practices-Aircraft Inspection and Repair," and AC 65-15, "Airframe and Powerplant Mechanics Airframe Handbook." (A-09-46) Require airplane manufacturers and operators to ensure that oxygen system tubing in proximity to electrical wiring is made of, sleeved with, or coated with nonconductive material or that the tubing is otherwise physically isolated from potential electrical sources. (A-09-47) Develop minimum electrical grounding requirements for oxygen system components and include these requirements as part of the certification process for new airplanes and approved supplemental type certificate modifications to existing airplanes. (A-09-48) Once electrical grounding requirements for oxygen system components are developed, as requested in Safety Recommendation A-09-48, require airplane operators and modifiers to inspect their airplanes for compliance with these criteria and modify those airplanes not in compliance accordingly. (A-09-49) Develop inspection criteria or service life limits for flexible oxygen hoses to ensure that they meet current certification and design standards. (A-09-50) Also, the National Transportation Safety Board reiterates the following recommendation to the Federal Aviation Administration: Provide guidance to aircraft rescue and firefighting personnel on the best training methods to obtain and maintain proficiency with the high-reach extendable turret with skin-penetrating nozzle. FMI: http://www.ntsb.gov/recs/letters/2009/A09_43_53.pdf aero-news.net ***************** Garuda, Airfast, Mandala, Premiair taken off EU black list The European Commission adopted the eleventh update of the Community's list of airlines banned in the European Union. Significant improvements and accomplishments of the Indonesian civil aviation authority are recognised in the area of safety. Since the imposition of the ban in July 2007, four air carriers - Garuda Indonesia, Airfast Indonesia, Mandala Airlines and Premiair were taken off the list, because their authority ensures that they respect the international safety standards. The Thai carrier One Two Go has been removed from the list as its certificate has been revoked by the Thai aviation authorities. Progress made by the civil aviation authority of Angola and the air carrier TAAG Angola Airlines to resolve progressively any safety deficiencies are recognised. In that context, the cooperation and assistance agreement signed between the civil aviation authorities of Angola and of Portugal allowed the airline to operate again into Portugal only with certain aircraft and under very strict conditions. Safety deficiencies identified in the system of oversight by the aviation authorities of Zambia and Kazakhstan, led to an operating ban on all carriers from these two countries, with the exception of the Kazakh air carrier Air Astana, whose operations into the Community are frozen under strict restrictions. (EU) (aviation-safety.net) **************** EC says Africa must improve aviation safety LUSAKA, July 14 (Xinhua) -- The European Commission (EC) has said that there is need to improve aviation safety in Africa so that the continent could attain its full development potential, the Times of Zambia reported on Tuesday. EC Administrator for Internal Market, Air Transport Agreements and Multilateral Relations Mikolaj Ratajczyk said at a symposium aimed at looking at the performance of regional safety agencies on aviation that increasing air accidents recorded by the African continent did not only affect the safety of the traveling public, but the continent's potential for development of its air transport industry and important branches of economies such as tourism. He said although a lot of money has been injected to address challenges facing Africa's aviation industry, the rate of fatal air accidents in Africa is still eight times higher than the world average, according to the daily. One in four accidents world-wide takes place in Africa although Africa represents only four percent of the global volume of air traffic, Times said. The EC official said the Europe and Africa have clear common interests for the development of air transport, which could bring economic development and more mobility not only between Africa and other continents but also within Africa. He said cooperation with Africa is of prime importance for the EC to bring concrete benefits for both sides, including aviation, adding that although there is political will to address challenges in the aviation industry, fresh approaches are needed. Speaking at the same occasion, President of the African Civil Aviation Commission (AFCAC) Charles Wako said the commission is applying its efforts to mitigate the brain drain on African aviation of technically qualified and skilled staff as they are valuable and cardinal to finding the solutions. ***************** Jury awards $11.4 million after helicopter crash DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - A jury has awarded $11.4 million to the widow of a cameraman and to an injured film producer after determining that pilot error caused a helicopter crash during a movie shoot. A Polk County jury on Monday found that pilot Richard Green, of Hudson, was at fault in the June 2006 crash. The helicopter he was piloting hit a power line and slammed into a cornfield near the eastern Iowa town of Walford. The plaintiffs argued that a windshield-mounted wire cutter designed to slice through power lines had been shortened and dulled to cut costs. Jurors awarded $7.2 million to the widow of Roland Schlotzhauer of Lenexa, Kan., and $4.2 million to producer Tony Wilson, who suffered extensive injuries. **************** TAAG limited to 777 operations in Europe Angolan flag-carrier TAAG will only be allowed to use its three Boeing 777-200ER aircraft on services to Europe following today's revision of the European Union's airline blacklist. The carrier was blacklisted in June 2007 and this decision was followed with a blanket ban on all Angolan airlines five months later. In its update to the blacklist the European Commission says TAAG can operate only to Portugal using the three General Electric GE90-powered 777s. The partial reprieve confirms indications earlier this month that the Commission was satisfied with progress on safety oversight and a commitment by Portuguese authorities to assist and monitor TAAG operations. Kazakh carrier Air Astana has avoided a blanket ban newly imposed on all other airlines in the country, three months after the Commission warned that "disquieting results" had emerged during ramp inspection of several Kazakh operators. The Commission nevertheless describes Air Astana's operations as "frozen" under "strict restrictions" - although it has yet to clarify this terminology, because it also lists all 21 of the carrier's aircraft, a mix of Boeing, Airbus and Fokker types, as being approved. All carriers from Zambia have also been blacklisted, among them the relatively young Zambezi Airlines which started operations a year ago and last month stated that it had expanded with a pair of Boeing 737-500s leased from GECAS. Aside from carriers from the 12 states subject to a blanket ban, the blacklist still features nine individual airlines banned in their own right. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news *************** Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC