In March, Southwest Airlines also had to cancel a significant number of its flights. The cancellations came after it was discovered that the airline wasn't up to date on inspections of 46 of its Boeing 737s, and that 5 of those 46 planes were found to have fuselage skin cracking.
Southwest ended up incurring a $10.2 million fine for its tardy inspections, but the airline insisted that, despite the fuselage cracks discovered in the 737s, no passengers were ever at risk.
In a press release issued by the airline, Gregory Feith, an independent "international aviation safety and security consultant" asserted that based on his review of the situation, Southwest's planes were never unairworthy.
It "is evident from the analysis and testing data developed by Boeing," Feith wrote, "that cracks up to 6 inches in the fuselage do not compromise the structural integrity or pose a safety of flight issue. This is further supported by the design of the fuselage structure which incorporates 'internal reinforcing doublers in the skin assembly' and 'tearstraps,' both of which are intended to provide strength, and slow or abate the growth rate of a crack under normal operating aerodynamic loads."
Photo by Southwest Airlines
