Lap Joint News Today

Extruded Polystyrene Board Market Analysis and Future Prospects for 2030

The plane that cracked open in mid flight last fright had undergone a major maintenance inspection in march of last year. investigators believe the problem began with a crack in the lap joint in a part of the fuselage where only visual inspections are required. >> these cracks are developing on the underside of the lap joint, which you cannot see with the naked eye. you need a more comprehensive method of determining these cracks thats what ultrasound or x-ray can find that the naked eye cant se...

Inspections for fatigue damage after this frightening episode on the southwest airlines flight last friday night. at 35,000 feet t fuselage of the phoenix to sacramento southwest flight ripped open leaving a gaping hole five feet long. passengers described a loud noise. >> all of a sudden theres a big sunroof in the middle of the plane, a big old hole. >> assault the oxygen masks dropped. everyone was trying to get the mask on. >> im holding the hand of the guy next to me trying not to bawl my e...

Eyeballing these planes to check for precisely this? >> well, they are eyeballing it, using your term, but there are various types of inspections done every day. some only require a visual inspection, looking for the more obvious things, the larger cracks and that kind of thing. in this particular area, the lap joint, the cracks are developing on the underside of the lap joint which you cannot see with the naked eye. you need to have a more comprehensive way of determining these cracks. the nake...

Flights on saturday, several hundred on sunday, and the focus has been on the 737 300s that might have cracking. any know that they saw significant cracking on that plane that made the emergency landing on friday in yuma. the question is whether other planes might have similar types of issues underneath whats called a lap joint, that is a joint when the different plates of metal on top of the plane sit on top of each other. underneath one of the plates they found the significant amount of cracki...

Spread cracking across this entire fracture surface. >> reporter: damages along one of the lap joints not detected in regular maintenance checks. >> what the issue is is that along this particular lap joint, it was not known in the industry that this was an area on airplanes of this number of cycles that those lap joints should be inspected. >> reporter: boeing, the maker of the 737 300, is drafting a service bulletin to require special inspections of the lap joints in all of the 737s with compa...

Entirely possible that youll see boeing today issue a service bulletin recommending that airlines around the world do immediate checks on this rivet line, the lap joint. you might see the faa weigh in very soon. >> tom, you know, we hear all of these conflicting pieces of information that come at us when something like this takes place. would you and your kids get on a 737 300? >> in a heart beat, yeah. >> good. >> i think you need to look at the fact that is the work horse of not only the -- of...

Now these are very small cracks, none of the same scale as the plane that was forced to make the emergency landing in yuma, arizona. but they did find these three cracks and they plan to do whatever they have to do fix them. the bigger context are, or the bigger question as it relates to this 737, is why did they not find this crack a year ago when they did a major overhaul, a 14-year overhaul. the answer seems to be that they -- the cracking was in a place they had never seen cracking before, i...

In service. >> we found evidence of additional cracks on that airplane. >> reporter: investigators in yuma, arizona removed a large section of that 737 that made an emergency landing friday night. that piece will go through tests at the ntsb lab in washington but already investigators say there are clear signs of pre-existing fracture lines on the aircrafts skin along a lap joint. >> what the issue is that along this particular lap joint it was not known in the industry that this was an area on ...

And today we begin with trouble in the air. small subsurface cracks have been found in three more southwest airlines planes after a federal investigation was launched to find out if a similar crack caused part of a 737 to tear off in midair on friday. last night, a southwest flight from oakland to san diego was diverted to los angeles for an emergency landing after the crew reported mechanical problems. the problems could lead to checks on similar planes and cancellations throughout the airline ...