After Hole Rips Open in 737 Fuselage In Flight, Southwest Airlines Grounds 79 Planes

[Blogger Shawna Malvini Redden was on the flight and took this photo of the hole that ripped open on the 737. Here's her report with more photos on her blog The Blue Muse.]

A Southwest Airlines 737-300 flying from Phoenix to Sacramento had a sudden rupture in its fuselage at 36,000 feet yesterday afternoon and made an emergency landing in Yuma, Ariz.

Today, Southwest is experiencing flight delays and cancellations throughout its system as the airline grounds 79 of its 737-300s for inspection. Southwest's top 10 departure airports are Chicago Midway, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Baltimore-Washington, Denver, Houston Hobby, Dallas Love, Los Angeles International, Orlando and Oakland.

{UPDATE -- As of 8 p.m. EDT tonight, Southwest had canceled 251 flights and was running an average of only 67 percent on time for the 2,169 flights that did depart, according to Flightstats.com

On its Web site, Southwest claims that it is "experiencing relatively few flight delays and cancellations while we are proactively inspecting some of our Boeing 737s." The numbers show how "relative" that assertion is, but I have to say, the use of that word "proactively" in this particular context annoys the hell out of me. I mean, consider the alternative.}

The plane, with 118 passengers on board, diverted to Yuma "due to loss of pressurization in the cabin," Southwest said, adding: "Upon safely landing in Yuma, the flight crew discovered a hole in the top of the aircraft."

Well, here is a news flash for you, Southwest: Your passengers actually "discovered" that rupture somewhat sooner, as some of them have posted photos of the gaping hole in the overhead of the cabin as the plane suddenly lost pressure and the oxygen masks dropped.

One passenger, Larry Downey, told a Phoenix TV station that he was directly below the hole when the fuselage ripped open. "You could look out and see blue sky," Downey said. Pilots quickly brought the airplane down to 11,000 feet as they headed for Yuma.

As Southwest grounded the 79 aircraft for inspection, major disruptions roiled its system -- and it's expected that there will be significant cancellations and delays on Sunday as well.

Southwest flies only Boeing 737s, and has a total of 548 of them in its fleet -- and 171 of them are older 737-300 models, which are no longer in production.

In 2009, a Southwest 737-300 had a similar fuselage rupture during a flight from Nashville to Baltimore. That plane made an emergency landing.

A year earlier, the Federal Aviation Administration had ordered Southwest to pay a fine of $10.2 million, the largest it had ever sought against an airline, for failure to fully inspect older 737s for cracks, and for flying them before inspections were completed.

Today, Southwest said it is "working with Boeing on an inspection regimen for the 81 affected Boeing 737 aircraft in the fleet [Southwest later revised that number to 79], which are covered by a set of Federal Aviation Administration Airworthiness Directives aimed at inspections for aircraft skin fatigue. These aircraft will be inspected over the course of the next several days."

Kind of interesting, by the way, how Southwest is stressing that word "Boeing."

In a statement earlier today, Southwest said: "Overnight, the airline worked with engineers from the Boeing Company to further assess the damage to the aircraft and develop an inspection regimen to look more closely at 79 (not 81 as was previously reported) of its Boeing 737 aircraft which are covered by a set of Federal Aviation Administration Airworthiness Directives aimed at inspections for aircraft skin fatigue. Those aircraft will be inspected over the course of the next several days at five locations. ..."

Southwest is known (and admired) for rapid turnaround of its 737s during its intense daily operations. In December 2010, a Federal Aviation Administration "Airworthiness Directive" that covered various 737 models spoke of concerns about "fatigue cracks at certain frame sections" in 737 fuselages, "... caused by high flight-cycle stresses..."

Here's a copy of that directive.

Today, the National Transportation Safety Board has a team in Yuma to investigate the damage to the airplane that diverted there yesterday.

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