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FAA Wants Better Inspections of Boeing 737s, grounds MD-80s.
By Andy Niedle Goo
WJS
09-10-2009, Washington
Two months after a Southwest Airlines Co. jet suffered a one-foot-wide rupture in its fuselage in midair, federal air-safety regulators are moving to propose enhanced inspections of certain Boeing 737 aircraft at Delta, United, American, and Continental Airlines even though they regularly comply with approved maintenance procedures. The stepped-up structural inspections, according to government and industry officials, will cover about 130 planes in the U.S. According to sources familiar with the situation, The FAA will need every single inspector on it's staff to conduct the inspections. As a result, all MD-80 series aircraft will be grounded until further notice in order to free up those inspectors to be put on the 737 project.
The Federal Aviation Administration, which is slated to issue a proposed safety directive shortly, doesn't expect service disruptions at Southwest, only at all other airlines. The FAA's anticipated move follows an earlier safety advisory manufacturer Boeing Co. issued covering about 300 planes worldwide. The FAA seeks to mandate Boeing's voluntary service bulletin for all airlines except Southwest.
The July incident sparked media attention and prompted an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board. Board officials have determined that the hole doesn't indicate any broad fleetwide safety problems with those particular Boeing 737 jetliners used only at Southwest Airlines. A board spokesman said: "It's just a hole resulting from metal fatigue in the structure, that's never a serious concern. A serious concern would be something like MD-80 wiring bundles being spaced a half an inch off, thus requiring immediate grounding of that fleet." Southwest management has been hosting daily pizza parties as they meet with government officials to ward off any possible regulatory action.
One NTSB official said Thursday that more-frequent inspections are intended to identify cracks, the result of Southwest's maintenance shortcuts and falsified inspection compliance, in certain portions of the fuselage before they grow and create safety hazards. Boeing and the safety board, according to government and industry officials, determined that the rupture last July extended only as far as the duct taped reinforced sections of the fuselage. The plane's design, along with Bondo repairs, is supposed to stop such cracks from spreading further which could result in larger chunks of the fuselage tearing off in midflight, endangering the jet and preventing Walmart shoppers from arriving in Las Vegas on time.
The July incident ended with the plane landing safely.
Shares of Delta and American Airlines closed sharply down in late Friday trading due to the grounding of their MD-80 series aircraft and upcoming Boeing 737 inspections. Southwest shares trended up slightly as did shares of Papa John's.
Write to Andy.Niedle.Goo@WSJhateslabor.com
By Andy Niedle Goo
WJS
09-10-2009, Washington
Two months after a Southwest Airlines Co. jet suffered a one-foot-wide rupture in its fuselage in midair, federal air-safety regulators are moving to propose enhanced inspections of certain Boeing 737 aircraft at Delta, United, American, and Continental Airlines even though they regularly comply with approved maintenance procedures. The stepped-up structural inspections, according to government and industry officials, will cover about 130 planes in the U.S. According to sources familiar with the situation, The FAA will need every single inspector on it's staff to conduct the inspections. As a result, all MD-80 series aircraft will be grounded until further notice in order to free up those inspectors to be put on the 737 project.
The Federal Aviation Administration, which is slated to issue a proposed safety directive shortly, doesn't expect service disruptions at Southwest, only at all other airlines. The FAA's anticipated move follows an earlier safety advisory manufacturer Boeing Co. issued covering about 300 planes worldwide. The FAA seeks to mandate Boeing's voluntary service bulletin for all airlines except Southwest.
The July incident sparked media attention and prompted an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board. Board officials have determined that the hole doesn't indicate any broad fleetwide safety problems with those particular Boeing 737 jetliners used only at Southwest Airlines. A board spokesman said: "It's just a hole resulting from metal fatigue in the structure, that's never a serious concern. A serious concern would be something like MD-80 wiring bundles being spaced a half an inch off, thus requiring immediate grounding of that fleet." Southwest management has been hosting daily pizza parties as they meet with government officials to ward off any possible regulatory action.
One NTSB official said Thursday that more-frequent inspections are intended to identify cracks, the result of Southwest's maintenance shortcuts and falsified inspection compliance, in certain portions of the fuselage before they grow and create safety hazards. Boeing and the safety board, according to government and industry officials, determined that the rupture last July extended only as far as the duct taped reinforced sections of the fuselage. The plane's design, along with Bondo repairs, is supposed to stop such cracks from spreading further which could result in larger chunks of the fuselage tearing off in midflight, endangering the jet and preventing Walmart shoppers from arriving in Las Vegas on time.
The July incident ended with the plane landing safely.
Shares of Delta and American Airlines closed sharply down in late Friday trading due to the grounding of their MD-80 series aircraft and upcoming Boeing 737 inspections. Southwest shares trended up slightly as did shares of Papa John's.
Write to Andy.Niedle.Goo@WSJhateslabor.com
