A Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-300 aircraft made an emergency landing at Yeager Airport, Charleston, WV today after a hole in the fuselage caused a loss of cabin pressure. The aircraft, operating as Southwest Flight SWA 2294, was en route from Nashville International Airport to Baltimore-Washington International Airport at the time of the incident. The crew diverted to to Charleston, where the plane landed at about 6PM local time. There were no reports of injuries among the 133 people on board.
Reporting on the incident, the Charleston Gazette quoted a passenger from the flight:
“We heard a loud pop, and one of the panels [on the ceiling] was sucked up tight against the ceiling. You could definitely tell there was a hole there.”
Oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling, and passengers put them on. “The flight attendants did a wonderful job, walking back and forth and keeping everyone calm,” he said.
The plane remained in the air for 20 to 30 minutes, [passenger] Hall estimated, before landing at Yeager. “It felt like a long time,” he said.
The passenger described the hole as “about the size of a football,” and said that a “piece of the roof was kind of peeled back.”
A brief article about the incident on the WSMV.com web site included a photo of the hole, taken from inside the aircraft by a passenger. It definitely looks as though the hull was breached — you can see daylight through the hole in the photo!
Source:Air crew buzz
By: glhcarl - 21st July 2009 at 17:29
It’s a chemicaly etched doubler. You find them all over Boeings.
Rgds Cking
It is a “bonded” doubler not a chemicaly etiched (milled) doubler. It is called a tear strap and it prevents a crack from growing past a specific length.
The pictures show the skin and a the seperate doubler!
By: Ship 741 - 20th July 2009 at 13:26
I’m guessing the crack originated at the rivet hole above the 11 1/4 inch mark on the ruler on the inside view. Then the crack propogated and the pressure inside the fuselage opened up the hole.
It’s not a doubler per se, the skin is chemically milled in this area…..it is apparently a known trouble spot.
By: Cking - 19th July 2009 at 22:40
Strange place to have a single doubler , has this frame been a test frame for Boeing, before Southwest bought it ?.
It’s a chemicaly etched doubler. You find them all over Boeings.
Rgds Cking
By: Whiskey Delta - 19th July 2009 at 00:57
Is it me, or is the “leading” edge of the hole left behind bent inward?
Just to the right of the hand writing
My guess would be that the downward bend was done after the skin failed as a result of the 300 knot wind hitting the exposed metal.
By: kevinwm - 17th July 2009 at 22:07
Strange place to have a single doubler , has this frame been a test frame for Boeing, before Southwest bought it ?.
By: Bmused55 - 17th July 2009 at 17:00
Is it me, or is the “leading” edge of the hole left behind bent inward?
Just to the right of the hand writing
By: Cking - 17th July 2009 at 16:45
Some pictures of the hole hear
http://www.ntsb.gov/Pressrel/2009/SW-737-interior.jpg
http://www.ntsb.gov/Pressrel/2009/SW-737-exterior.jpg
Interesting
Rgds Cking
By: slipperysam - 15th July 2009 at 09:50
Wow!
Is there an small antenna attached?
What looks like a white patch at the top of the torn panel?
In any case its lucky the tear stopped where it did.
By: symon - 15th July 2009 at 08:22
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8150346.stm
Looks very neat as kevinwm says. It looks like it’s between two frames and two stringers to me. The structure is designed to stop a tear “Running” So it works!!!
Rgds Cking
Yeah, someone at work said today that the skins have certain ‘tear’ points to prevent whole sections coming off.
By: Bmused55 - 15th July 2009 at 07:26
Might even have been caused by a botched attempt at scraping off paint when it was last repainted, or perhaps someones heavy foot as somtimes MX workers will walk atop the fuselage.
By: Cking - 14th July 2009 at 21:39
just looked at the picture on the BBC , very neat “tear” almost like a hatch cover poping open ,
A lot of pepole in the know mystified at the hole , not the normal fatigue looking tear , Possible skin repair/patch ???
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8150346.stm
Looks very neat as kevinwm says. It looks like it’s between two frames and two stringers to me. The structure is designed to stop a tear “Running” So it works!!!
Rgds Cking
By: Ship 741 - 14th July 2009 at 21:39
No matter what the inevitable investigation reveals, there is one thing we can be sure of: The pilot was a hero!
By: kevinwm - 14th July 2009 at 21:21
just looked at the picture on the BBC , very neat “tear” almost like a hatch cover poping open ,
A lot of pepole in the know mystified at the hole , not the normal fatigue looking tear , Possible skin repair/patch ???
By: J Boyle - 14th July 2009 at 17:27
It’s certainly not as bad as the Aloha jet (which had a very high number of cycles and was operated in in a corrosive environment). And the break is in a different location.
Weird looking hole, though ANY hole in a jetliner is a bad thing.
I guess the question is whether its a one-off event…if it were fleet wide, I would have thought we’d see it by now…as -300s are a bit old.
By: Bmused55 - 14th July 2009 at 07:46
Very close call I’d say.
Perhaps metal fatigue due to high cycles?
By: symon - 14th July 2009 at 06:48
http://www.wsmv.com/news/20043443/detail.html
Link :rolleyes:
Reminds me of the Aloha airlines 737-200 incident and the Miracle Landing film that followed it.
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July 14, 2009 at 4:02 am