Personal Injury Blog

Incorrect Manufacture led to Boeing Plane Safety Incident

September 25th, 2011
Boeing Plane accident

Fortunately none of the plane's occupants was harmed due to the incident.

According to the National Transportation Safety Board, a Boeing Plane safety incident that occurred on an American Airlines Boeing 757 last year was the result of the faulty manufacture of a panel.  The panel tore open while the plane was in midair, leading to an emergency landing.  Los Angeles plane crash lawyers fear that such defects may be present on many other older planes.

The incident occurred on October 12, 2010 on an American Airlines flight that had just taken off from Miami.  Fifteen minutes after the plane took off, a hole tore open in the 757-200.  The hole was about 18″ x 17″, and as a result of the hole, decompression set in at about 32,000 feet.  The plane returned to Miami airport, and fortunately, no injuries were reported.

Investigators found that the rupture was caused due to fatigue cracking of the upper fuselage, where they found that the skin thickness was much lower than Boeing’s specified minimum of 0.237 inches.  The National Transportation Safety Board says that similar problems were noticed on another American Airlines 757 and a United Airlines Boeing 757.  Both these planes also had skin that was much thinner than the minimum requirements.

The American Airlines plane that was involved in the Miami incident had been pressed into service in 1990.  During this period of time, it had flown more than 60,000 hours and had completed 22,450 flights.  However, the National Transportation Safety Board now finds that important records that could have pointed to the cause of the rupture were not maintained at Boeing.  The company was not required to maintain these records.

The National Transportation Safety Board also noted that neither the Federal Aviation Administration nor Boeing had issued any inspection regulations regarding the section that cracked, before this incident.  However, in November 2010, Boeing issued a service bulletin, which required repeated inspections to look for the presence of such cracks.  In January, the Federal Aviation Administration issued its own directive requiring such inspections.

The lack of such records is also being probed as part of another investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board.   The Board is investigating an incident aboard a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 in which a section of fuselage was ripped open while the plane was in mid flight.  That Boeing Plane Safety incident occurred in April this year, and led to the plane having to make an emergency landing.  There were no serious injuries, but some of the passengers passed out due to lack of oxygen because of decompression in the cabin.  However, it was a terrifying few minutes for the passengers as oxygen masks fell, and the forceful sound of the wind raced through the aircraft.  Fortunately, the pilots were able to land the plane without any adverse events.

 

 

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