Southwest grounds 81 planes

[medeak]

Source: NYtimes

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/03/us/03plane.html?smid=tw-nytimes&seid=auto

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/03/us/03plane.html?smid=tw-nytimes&seid=auto

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. Sounds like SW has had a lot of problems with this plane:

Two years ago, Southwest faced a similar episode when a hole ripped open in a plane’s fuselage and forced an emergency landing on a flight bound for Baltimore.

Earlier that year, Southwest was fined $7.5 million for safety violations by the Federal Aviation Administration.

In 1988, a flight attendant was swept to her death and scores of passengers were injured when an Aloha Airlines Boeing 737 suffered a 20-foot rupture in its fuselage during an inter-island flight in Hawaii.

[medeak]

2. yikes

thanks for info!

[Blue_Tires]

20. That Aloha incident was a little different

It was an older, earlier model 737 near the end of its service life, and it had almost twice as many pressurization cycles as the Southwest 737

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

21. The 300, 400 and 500 generation of the 737 is more or less junk

Despite being relatively efficient thanks to their CFM56 engines, they have found themselves withdrawn from service much earlier and in much larger numbers than similarly aged aircraft mostly because of a ridiculous number of airworthiness directives combined with high maintenance costs. United, US Airways, Frontier and Delta have all withdrawn their 737's of this generation. Delta retired the 737-300 before the horribly inefficient and much older 737-200's.

Airbus largely owes the ascendancy of the Airbus A320 family to these turkeys which forced Boeing to develop the modern 737.

[Downwinder]

3. Didn't I read that they are removing the Oxygen mass from the lavatories?

[truthisfreedom]

4. Yes, homeland security is busy making us insecure, as usual.

[frazzled]

7. This has zero to do with homeland security

The article says as much: not terrorist related. This is about crappy airplanes. Why must you make everything fit into your political pigeonhole?

[customerserviceguy]

8. Removing safety equipment

because of what some jihadi might do is indeed terrorism related. The overreaction to the terrorist threat, and the targeting of the innocent rather than expending resources on the potentially suspect is something that threatens us all.

[frazzled]

9. No, you are overreacting to not having a mask in the lav

Flush, exit the lav, and go put on the mask at your seat. There is no safety issue here.

This is about the unsafe Southwest planes that rip apart in midair. That is the subject of the OP. You're trying to change it to fit your own obsessions.

[CreekDog]

14. what if you're disabled

:shrug:

[TheMadMonk]

19. Same as for children. Hope someone gets to you in time. /nt

[Downwinder]

15. Correction: the OP is about explosive decompression.

At which time an Oxygen mask would come in handy.

[CreekDog]

16. hey genius, what about the people who fained?

"People were dropping," said Christine Ziegler, a 44-year-old project manager from Sacramento who watched as the crew member and a passenger nearby fainted. Nelson and Ziegler spoke after a substitute flight took them on to Sacramento.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/04/01/state/n205845D63.DTL#ixzz1IP7BHDJb

[frazzled]

17. Fainting inside the bathroom would be more dangerous

The end.

[Hawkowl]

22. 15 to 20 seconds

That is the amount of time of useful conscious if you suffer a non rapid decompression at 40,000 feet while you are seated. Of course getting out of the Lav and walking to your seat is considered exercise and will probably cut it down to 7 - 10 seconds. Then again, an explosive decompression like losing a piece of the ceiling will reduce your time down to about 3 - 5 seconds. So basically, you are going to pass out with your pants down around your ankles as you fall face first into the aisle. But don't worry, because the pilots will have you down to where you can breathe in 3- 4 minutes :)

[Downwinder]

23. Don't forget, the immediate action of the pilots is to dump the nose.

You will be returning to your seat at a 50 degree deck angle.

[Hawkowl]

24. Indeed!

I wonder if the negative deck angle combined with the de-pressurization would result in the lav erupting like a geyser of feces all over the unlucky passenger!!

[Kablooie]

18. They should supply oxygen masks in the lavatories for non emergency use. Phew!

[ProudDad]

5. Southwest saves money by ONLY flying 737s

Now they're getting old.

[Bound by Honor]

6. Actually the 737-300s are old and needs to be retired.

IIRC, Southwest retrofitted them with the winglets to save money.

However, their 737-700's are newer, so they should last another 10-15 years.

I'm sure Southwest has plans to sell off all of their 737-300's and Airtran's old 717's (which is also newer version of MD-88) once the merger is complete.

[ProudDad]

25. Yep, I always get nervous

when I enter a Southwest 737 showing wear and tear...

You can't "maintain" against metal fatigue...

[Baclava]

10. Good thing nobody got sucked out like in the movies

http://media.npr.org/images/ap//AP_News_Wire:_Latest_Headlines/2011/04/01/1_Southwest_Flight_Diverted.sff.jpg

[Mnemosyne]

12. 1988 Aloha Airlines, one person. See dixiegrrrrl's Post #1. n/t

[russspeakeasy]

11. This is not about terrorism...This is about no goddamned oversight.

[medeak]

13. flew SW once and disaster

indeed you are correct. Circled over SF for hours as fogged in...stewardess came to me frantic saying we were out of fuel and think we're going into ocean. Gave her magazine...and said calm yourself down. Have nice face I guess...we landed 10 minutes later.

[slackmaster]

27. Did you slap her around and tell her to snap out of it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkLwGp0NErs

[slackmaster]

26. Have you ever heard of the Federal Aviation Administration?

http://www.faa.gov/

Southwest Airlines is highly motivated to maintain its excellent safety record. They've done exactly the right thing by grounding aircraft similar to the one that had a failure.

Not one person died on a US domestic passenger flight in 2010.