Lapse Joint Checks Ground Southwest Planes
Lapse Joint Checks Ground Southwest Planes
Jason Sandefur
Missed inspections for cracking around the lap joints on older Boeing 737s prompted the grounding of 38 jets operated by Southwest Airlines. Lap joints are where the fuselage skin panels overlap and are attached by fasteners.
The cracks, if not repaired, could lead to sudden decompression of the cabin, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
“The voluntary grounding of the planes came after the FAA proposed last week a record penalty of $10.2 million against Southwest because the airline skipped structural inspections on 46 other older jets and continued to fly the planes,” writes James Wallace of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. “Cracks were subsequently found on several of those planes.”
The FAA has been criticized for failing to ground the Southwest jets last year, when agency inspectors learned the aircraft had not been inspected for fuselage cracks.
An FAA airworthiness directive dating back to 1997 and amended in 2002 requires inspections and repairl of the lap joints on older 737s that had accumulated more than 65,000 flight cycles. �2008 FastenerNews.com
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