Rivet Line News Today

V8. whats your number? >> welcome back. as we just told you, southwest airlines expected to cancel about 100 more flights today after federal investigators found cracks in three other jetliners. >> that after a massive hole in a passenger jets fuselage forced an emergency landing on friday. >> we have clear evidence that the skin separated at the lower rivet line.

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...

A preliminary on site examination reveals pre-existing fatigue along the entire fracture surface. >> the question this morning is did southwest ignore those warning signs on these planes? joining us now is the former managing director of the ntsb. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> do you believe they ignored warning signs? >> well, we wont know until we go back over their records. i mean, this plane went through a check less than a year ago which is a very comprehensive tear down and rebu...

Focused on ensuring that it d e doesnt have a wider and broader problem. the ntsb have found a crack along an area on the top of the plane along a rivet line. and it is in an area where they never expected to see that kind of cracking after few cycles. in this case 40,000 cycles. to have 40 thousand lannings and a crack develop is concerning and they expect boeing to issue a service industry. they are flown around the world though.

Activated. the stress fackture, the south africature area is five feet by one foot wide. where the skin comes together, on the aircraft, it doesnt just come together like this. its overlaps. that is called a "lab joint." and at each joint there are three rows of rivets. that run down the aircraft longitudinally. and we have clear evidence that the skin separated at the lower rivet line. a preliminary on-site examination reveals preexisting fatigue along the entire fracture surface. this is a ter...

Thorough once-over before rejoining the fleet. thats after passengers aboard a southwest 737 watched a large hole rip over at 36,000 feet in the air on friday. a flight safety expert told me earlier today what likely happened. >> southwest operates aircraft in whats called a high-cycle, high-fatigue environment. they run up and down. in other words, the plane goes from ground to altitude, back down which is a pressurization cycle quite frequently, much more so than a lot of other airlines. what ...