[Larry Lucido]

I guess Bondo wouldn't help a whole lot with this.

[COEXERJ145]

Age of an aircraft is not an issue. The real issue is how well is it inspected and maintained. Like any piece of equipment, an aircraft must be serviced and undergo regular maintenance or else it will suffer some kind of structural failure.

Look at how many 707's, 727's, DC-8's, and DC-9's are still flying after 30-40+ years of service.

[rageaholic]

those pesky box cutters again!

[Cicero]

It's not a Boeing issue, it's a box-cutter issue. Obviously you don't take a knife to an airplane wing.

This story couldn't come at a worse time, however. Last month's balance of payments deficit shot up because of massive imports from Airbus Industries.

[Monty22]

I don't fly, but if I had to it would be 737-600+ or 777 only now. I want something brand new.

[sionnsar]

KIRO 7 Eyewitness News Investigative Reporter Chris Halsne discovers a big new problem for Boeing, centered on "lap-joint metal fatigue".

I've seen this air-blown airhead. I won't talk about (IMHO) he couldn't even discover, but to "discover" something like this -- naah, somebody told him.

But then the self-promotional hype of Seattle television "news" is so awful I quit watching it sometime in back in the 80s. The early 80s... (i.e. just after I moved there).

[SW6906]

Yeesh. What a sensationalistic hit-piece article of crap. Boeing has been aware of and publicly dealing with the lap joint issue for years!! I just talked to a guy last week about it!

I love how they are Boeing jets to KIRO, even the ones that were sold 30 years ago! Boeing hasn't made 737-200s for a long time!

Once the airplane is sold to an airline, it is the airline's responsibility to maintain it. Boeing does advise the airlines on how to maintain the aircraft and problems to look out for, but if the airline doesn't follow federally-prescribed and audited maintenance, it is not Boeing's fault when that airplane falls apart.

Is it Ford's fault that the floor of the trunk of my 1972 Maverick rusted through because I failed to check and maintain the seals on a 30+ year-old car and to make sure water that got in didn't sit there?

[Retired Chemist]

"Fourteen years earlier, an Aloha Airlines 737 opened up like a sardine can, killing one person and injuring eight more."

Didn't the investigation attribute this to the number of take-offs and landings the aircraft had experienced?

[Rate_Determining_Step]

Is trimming excess calk with a box cutter prescribed in the factory maintenance documentation?

Rather than just raise questions, why not answer the basic question that would focus liability where it belongs?

My guess is that it's NOT ok to score the superstructure with a knife and therefore the airline's fault.

Much like the bad jack-screw that downed that 737. Not Boeing's fault.

[boris]

No other manufacturers' planes wear out, are subject to corrosion or fatigue. Just Boeing's. Imagine that.