Quote:
Originally Posted by gimpy117
don't touch the glass with your hand when you put it in. Im told oils from the skin mess with the bulb
also, all I'm saying is is that this isn't a normal occurance. Planes just don't rip open mid air. For an aircraft to fail like that isn't very common, and these things are designed with safeguards, and inspection intervals that are designed to occur before a problem like this happens. I don't get why you are defending SWA so much here. I don't want to assign blame to them...but I'm suspicious because they have put off airframe inspections before and had an accident very similar to this. After taking courses in aviation safety, and studying accidents therein You'd be surprised how many accidents have factors that occurred when the plane was being worked on in the shop. These Shops are often rushed, or pressured to skimp by the Management to save money....I would not be surprised this is the case.
Also, the plane flying so much has NOTHING to do with it and does not at all serve as an excuse. The more cycles and hours you fly, the more you need to work on the aircraft. Commercial carriers are required to fix their plane on an hour based system...when it reaches X number of flight time you need to look at it. There are also published Cycles for the airframe that will tell you when you need to look at the airframe. So no, I don't buy the whole "it's been used a lot" argument...because the System is DESIGNED to negate that issue.
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Yeah, I know about the bulb glass; I've done this before.
I'm not saying that the issue isn't Southwest's fault - there's clearly safety issues in their past; there are with every airline. What I am saying is there are factors involved beyond which an airline can address, even due to skimpy maintenance. They've not had a major casualty incident yet. There's a reason for that that argues competence on the part of their maintenance people - with all the ups and downs and miles they're putting on these airframes, it has to be more than luck that they've not had major issues and high body counts.
The NTSB has come forward with news that there are indications of existing fatigue in the aircraft metal, so that settles that issue. Now the question will be, "How long was it a noticeable condition, and why was it not noticed?" I suspect that someone's going to lose a job at the very least.