Southwest Airlines Grounds Planes

[guido911]

(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.

The flight, with 118 passengers and five crew members on board, landed safely at the Yuma Marine Corps Air Station, a military base, with a hole in the top of the aircraft, a Southwest spokeswoman said in a statement.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/02/airlines-southwest-idUSN0219045520110402

[dbacks fan]

The fortunate thing is the plane had not reached cruising altitude. At that time of day flights are usually taking off to the west so they are already pointed towards Yuma somewhat.

http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/2011/04/02/20110402arizona-southwest-flight-diverted-hole-brk.html

[custosnox]

Great, and I'm flying Southwest Wed

[guido911]

The fortunate thing is the plane had not reached cruising altitude. At that time of day flights are usually taking off to the west so they are already pointed towards Yuma somewhat.

http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/2011/04/02/20110402arizona-southwest-flight-diverted-hole-brk.html

Good find.

[Hoss]

The fortunate thing is the plane had not reached cruising altitude. At that time of day flights are usually taking off to the west so they are already pointed towards Yuma somewhat.

http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/2011/04/02/20110402arizona-southwest-flight-diverted-hole-brk.html

Are you sure about that?  I heard today that they were at cruise at 34000 feet.  The pilot had to descend rapidly to 11000 to stave off apoxia in the cabin.

EDIT:  CNN reports it was 36000 feet and they were 35 minutes into the flight.  That's likely right around the time you'd reach cruise altitude.

[Red Arrow]

Local TV news just said they were at 36,000 and descended to 11,000 in 4 minutes.  That's a pretty good descent rate considering they had a hole in the fuselage.  No biggie if the plane were normal.

[Hoss]

Local TV news just said they were at 36,000 and descended to 11,000 in 4 minutes.  That's a pretty good descent rate considering they had a hole in the fuselage.  No biggie if the plane were normal.

Yeah, about 6000 fpm!  That's pretty steep for a descent when a regular descent runs between 1500 and 2500 fpm.

[dbacks fan]

Are you sure about that?  I heard today that they were at cruise at 34000 feet.  The pilot had to descend rapidly to 11000 to stave off apoxia in the cabin.

EDIT:  CNN reports it was 36000 feet and they were 35 minutes into the flight.  That's likely right around the time you'd reach cruise altitude.

I was taking an unscientific guess, going by the time of depature to the time of landing, and I may have missed that they had reached 36k feet.

[Conan71]

Yeah, about 6000 fpm!  That's pretty steep for a descent when a regular descent runs between 1500 and 2500 fpm.

If the gaping hole didn't scare the smile out of you that nose-dive sure would!

[Hoss]

If the gaping hole didn't scare the smile out of you that nose-dive sure would!

No kidding..like the first time your FI is showing you how to do an emergency descent in a Cessna/Piper (where you throttle back to idle and notch the flaps...typically about 2000fpm, which is pretty extreme in an ASEL ...that's pilot geek speak for Airplane, Single Engine Land..in other words, a little two or four seater).

[Red Arrow]

No kidding..like the first time your FI is showing you how to do an emergency descent in a Cessna/Piper (where you throttle back to idle and notch the flaps...typically about 2000fpm, which is pretty extreme in an ASEL ...that's pilot geek speak for Airplane, Single Engine Land..in other words, a little two or four seater).

A Cessna 150 with 40 degrees of flap out and an idling engine comes down pretty quickly.  If I remember, I'll check the rate next time I fly it.  I'm usually pretty slow, going for angle of descent more than rate of descent. 

A twin with the props flat (levers forward) and the engines back is really impressive.  Two airbrakes (the props) instead of just one.  I don't remember the rate but it was fast.  It's not good for the engine cooling (too fast) so it's not something one does on a regular basis.

The fastest sustained rate of descent I remember flying was a race to the pattern with my brother in another sailplane.  We had some afternoon thunderboomers developing while we were at about 7000 feet above the ground.  The plane I was in had terminal velocity flaps  About 10% of the wing area could be put down at 90 degrees to the airflow.  With full stick forward, it felt like I was going straight down.  The airspeed indicated 50 knots, about 5000 ft per minute.  It wasn't actually straight down but we both beat the weather. Kind of fun really but normally it would have been a waste of altitude.

[heironymouspasparagus]

I always hate it when pieces of the plane leave while in flight.  I'm thinking they are there for a reason, and if that reason was good enough for Boeing, it works for me, too.

[Conan71]

I always hate it when pieces of the plane leave while in flight.  I'm thinking they are there for a reason, and if that reason was good enough for Boeing, it works for me, too.

[patric]

No kidding..like the first time your FI is showing you how to do an emergency descent in a Cessna/Piper (where you throttle back to idle and notch the flaps...

Once he's got the propeller going slow enough to where you can visually count the revolutions, he has you pull the stick back until that bicycle-horn stall alarm goes off, then, wow... That's a memory that will stick with me all my life, which, at the time, seemed just about finished...

[Red Arrow]

Once he's got the propeller going slow enough to where you can visually count the revolutions, he has you pull the stick back until that bicycle-horn stall alarm goes off, then, wow... That's a memory that will stick with me all my life, which, at the time, seemed just about finished...

All that stuff is fun.....unless you are too close to the ground.