Posted on 12/27/2005 8:46:03 PM PST by DenverCossack
SEATTLE (AP) -- A 12-inch hole in the fuselage of an Alaska Airlines jet caused the plane to lose cabin pressure, forcing the pilots to make an emergency descent and return to the airport, authorities said Tuesday. The incident Monday involved an MD-80 jet en route from Seattle to Burbank, Calif. The plane landed safely at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, and none of the 140 passengers was hurt. A baggage handler acknowledged that he failed to report immediately striking the plane at the gate Monday with a baggage cart or baggage-belt machine, said Jim Struhsaker, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board. The worker told the agency that although the vehicle touched the plane, he was not aware he had dented it, Struhsaker said. The accident created a crease in the plane's aluminum skin, which opened up into a 12-by-6-inch gash as the jet came climbed to 26,000 feet, Struhsaker said. The crew of Flight 536 reported a loss of cabin pressure about 20 minutes after takeoff, airline spokeswoman Caroline Boren said. Oxygen masks deployed for passengers, and the plane made a rapid descent back toward the airport. "I could feel that obviously my ears popping ... and then it got hard to breathe, and then, whoosh, all the compression in the plane was lost," passenger Jeremy Hermanns said. Airline officials did not return repeated calls from The Associated Press.
My guess: the "baggage handler" was another low-wage south of the border moron.
The structural integrity of the "skin" of an airplane is not something that would get more than a casual glance on most preflight checks. My guess is that this was a ding on a rivet seam that looked like nothing more than a scrape to the baggage handler. Unfortunately, or not, baggage handlers are not required to have degrees in aeronautical engineering. Hey, the pilots and all passengers walked away uninjured. It was a successful flight.
Hopefully, Charles Nelson Reilly wasn't your pit boss.
Alaska Airlines recently fired its baggage handlers and contracted out the baggage handling at SeaTac Airport. This is the worst, but far from the first problem they've had since that happened. But hey, they're savin' money....
lol!
Airbus...
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Thank you for the Link, Freeper A.A. Cunningham.
Appreciate.
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Yup, 318 Airbus, not 319 or 320 as I originally posted.
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Film at 11, exclusively in Los Angles on KABC TV Channel 7 News
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Ah, he's probably union. He'll just get a letter on his file.
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