Meantime, consider....
Posted on 04/02/2011 9:16:29 AM PDT by Paleo Conservative
(Reuters) - Southwest Airlines grounded 81 aircraft from its Boeing 737 fleet for inspection after a gaping hole in the fuselage forced one of its planes to make emergency landing in Arizona on Friday, the company said on Saturday.
Southwest (LUV.N) and Boeing (BA.N) engineers will inspect the aircraft to try to determine the cause, Southwest said in a statement. Passengers heard a loud noise and suddenly saw a hole about mid-cabin.
Southwest Airlines is working with the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration on the ground in Arizona to determine the cause of a sudden drop in cabin pressure on Southwest Flight 812 from Phoenix to Sacramento on Friday, airline officials said.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Of its total of 540 planes, Southwest flies about 170 of these. It has replaced the aluminum skin on many of the 300s in recent years but the 80 planes being grounded have not had their skin replaced.
I recognize that. But I'm not a statistic. Yet :-)
I flew for years in business. Had more frequent flier miles than you could shake a stick at.
I don't fly anymore 'cause I don't have to. Retired. If I want to go to California, I'd much rather drive and enjoy our wonderful, beautiful country.
IMHO, the airlines and the TSA are doing everything they can to discourage flying.
I stand corrected, the pilot that was sucked out lived. He was partially sucked out and his fellow crew held onto his ankles for 15 minutes while the co-pilot landed the jet:
4 Miles Over Britain Pilot Is Sucked Out; Crew Holds On Tight
By SHEILA RULE, Special to The New York Times
Published: June 11, 1990
The pilot of a passenger plane was partly sucked out of the cabin window onto the nose cone of the jet today after its windshield blew out at 23,000 feet. But he was saved by crew members who clung to his ankles for 15 minutes until the co-pilot landed the plane safely in southern England.
Several of the aircraft’s 81 passengers said they watched in horror as crew members frantically wrestled to pull Capt. Timothy Lancaster back into the cockpit. The plane went into a dive, but with half of Mr. Lancaster’s body hanging outside the co-pilot flew the aircraft to Southampton Airport, 70 miles southwest of London.
The Civil Aviation Authority immediately announced an investigation into the episode, which police said began 20 minutes into British Airways Flight 5390 from Birmingham, England, to Malaga in Spain.
Captain Lancaster, 41 years old and a pilot for 21 years, was taken to Southampton General Hospital suffering from shock, a fractured elbow, wrist and thumb, and frostbite on one hand. The police said that all the crew members were taken to the hospital and that four passengers were treated for shock. Everyone except the captain was later released.
Another plane was sent to Southampton to take the passengers to Malaga. All except seven continued their journey.
Passengers said the aircraft, a BAC-111, was gaining altitude over southern England when they heard an explosion as the cabin window blew out. The windshield was later found in Didcot, Oxfordshire.
‘’I could see a body hanging out of the window, with two men and a woman hanging onto his legs,’’ a passenger, Margaret Simmonds, told the Press Association, Britain’s domestic news agency. ‘’They were trying to stop him being sucked out.’’
Chris Opie, another passenger, told the agency: ‘’There seemed to be some smoke immediately after the bang and suddenly there was sheer panic. An air hostess standing near us at the back of the plane started to cry. I thought we were going to crash and began praying. My girlfriend, Nichola, who was sitting next to me, was crying and hugging our son, James.
‘’Then one of the men on the flight deck came onto the loudspeaker announcement radio and said the windscreen had blown out and warned us to prepare for an emergency landing.’’
Just read your next post....-300.
Thanks
Re your comment about a meteorite, this short video points to that being a possibility on April 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4Zz1Ek0F94
The average decline of the place was the ratio of 271.1 feet per each second over the give time of the data was recorded. Hence the rate of decline.
Also, it is easy for this plane to descend faster than terminal velocity of a falling object since it was moving forward at a much faster speed. 271.1 feet/second equals 184.8 mph. The plane was not held still in the sky like a ball in your hand, but it pointed it’s angle of direction below the horizon while maintaining thrust from the engines. Therefore it would descend faster than terminal velocity.
The physical properties of Al alloys haven’t changed much over that time frame.
I used to feel this good way about Southwest until they canceled the Thursday night flight, Tampa to Hartford. Not enough passengers and yet the plane came from Ft. Laurderdale to Tampa first without a problem. Made those passengers get off and screwed all the Tampa boarding passengers. Waited around at the Tampa airport until 1 1/2 hour AFTER the flight was scheduled to depart before they told us to go screw.
Whole trip cancelled. Sitting at home.
Well, that just stinks! I don’t blame you for being upset. I would have been too. :(
I hope you get your money back. I think a letter to the
president of Southwest is in order in this case! After all
they do have a reputation to protect.
That is my assumption, My guess is an exploded compressed ai or LOX container with a timer of some sort.A new bomb design, specifically eant to bring down airliners.Call it a torpedo.I don’t buy a panel failure either.Not uless the aircraft wss uder entreme manuevering torgue. The panel would hae to buckle before it let go, the tail twisting minutely from the rest of the air frame, or jinking from a dive or rapid pull up.I just don’t buy the explanation.
I think the explanation is anti panic fodder for the masses.
Passive failure in s sub sonic ihas to be related to strees through maneuvering. I am not convinced.Its much safer to asuune sabotage and disprove it.Gas driven torpedo in a tube is my guess.
Sounds like a good reason of why NOT to charge extra for a passenger who has a little "spillage" into your seating area. That "spillage" might be what saves your life someday. ;-)
Crazy, crazy story with pictures and video here:http://www.gallagher.com/ejection_seat/
The large rectangular windows were a part of the Comet disasters. That led to the small oval windows we've seen ever since.
Meantime, consider....
Pity. It was a beautiful plane.
US Scareways has killed more people than SWA. Since 1994, 243 have died on US Airways. Since 1971, ZERO have died on Southwest.
I refuse to fly anybody but Southwest. Airtran and other “discount” airlines are pathetic jokes when you look at their prices compared to Southwest, often $100 more roundtrip.
This incident will not cause me to fly with anybody else, much less U.S. Airways.
Southwest is one of the few airlines that cares to fly in smaller places that AA, US Airways etc. won’t.
It sure was.
You know what? It’s a JOKE. Note the old Moslem reference. Relax.
(Meanwhile, Southwest is still the Wal-Mart/BJ’s/Costco of the air - cheap and they treat you that way.)
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