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Activated. the stress fackture, the south africature area is five feet by one foot wide. where the skin comes together, on the aircraft, it doesn't just come together like this. it's 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 term known in the industry as multisite damage.

Thorough once-over before rejoining the fleet. that's 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 what's 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 happens is we exercise that fuselage, it blows up, if you will with pressure and deflates when we ...