Meanwhile, in Tulsa, the maintenance records group discovered that one of the six main attachments that held the Flight 587 plane's tail to the fuselage underwent a significant repair in 1988, soon after the plane rolled off the assembly line but before it was delivered to American.So the last inspection of the 13 year-old repair was 2 years ago. How much experience is there with assessing incipient failures with this kind of repair? How did they pick a five year inspection interval?The left-center fitting "delaminated," and technicians in Toulouse, France, where the plane was built, added a "doubler" and rivets to reinforce the joint, Black said at the evening briefing. Airbus then delivered the plane to American but did not indicate that special inspections of the repaired area were necessary.
The attachments are to be checked every five years, Black said. The last check of the American A300-600's tail/fuselage attachment fittings took place in December, 1999, which is also when the plane had its last heavy maintenance visit.
Ken, figured I'd ping you on this thread. It's got a bunch of folks much smarter than myself, if you were learning stuff from me yesterday you'll learn plenty from these guys (I am).