Emergency landing due to possible cracked passenger window. Landed without further incident.
Southwest Airlines Company: http://registry.faa.gov/N713SW
Date: 02-MAY-18
Time: 14:41:00Z
Regis#: N713SW
Aircraft Make: BOEING
Aircraft Model: 737 7H4
Event Type: INCIDENT
Highest Injury: UNKNOWN
Aircraft Missing: No
Damage: MINOR
Activity: COMMERCIAL
Flight Phase: EMERGENCY DESCENT (EMG)
Operation: 121
Aircraft Operator: SOUTHWEST AIRLINES
Flight Number: 9001
City: CLEVELAND
State: OHIO
(Reuters) - A Newark, New Jersey-bound Southwest Airlines Co (LUV.N) flight made an emergency landing in Cleveland on Wednesday after a window pane cracked in flight, airline officials and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said.
No one was injured in the incident, which came two weeks after an engine on a Southwest 737 ripped apart in flight and shattered a window, killing a female passenger in the first U.S. airline passenger fatality since 2009.
The cause of Wednesday’s crack in one of the window’s multiple panes was not immediately known.
The flight, Southwest 957, was traveling to Newark Liberty International Airport from Chicago Midway International Airport with 76 passengers on board. The crew diverted the Boeing Company 737-700 to Cleveland-Hopkins International Airport at about 11 a.m. EDT to inspect a layer of a windowpane, said Southwest spokesman Brian Parrish.
“The aircraft has been taken out of service for maintenance review,” Parrish said.
FAA spokesman Tony Molinaro, who confirmed no one was hurt, said the organization was investigating the incident.
Wednesday’s incident is damaging more to Southwest’s public perception than evidence of any systemic issue, Teal Group Fleet analyst Richard Aboulafia said. The airline said in its first- quarter earnings report it is bracing for a decline in bookings following the April engine blowout.
“It’s unfortunate only from an optics and image standpoint,” Aboulafia said. “Windows are made by window manufacturers. Nothing to do with technology that’s unique to the 737 or to Southwest.”
The FAA on Tuesday ordered additional inspections of fan blades in hundreds of additional engines similar to the one that failed in the deadly Southwest accident on April 17.
Southwest has said it planned to complete ultrasonic inspections on all fan blades on the some 700 planes in its fleet with the CFM56-7B engines, the model involved in last month’s blowout, over the next two weeks, meeting the FAA’s August deadline by mid-May. The CFM engine is made by a joint venture of General Electric Company and France’s Safran.
Southwest said it has not found any cracks on fan blades inspected since the accident.
Original article can be found here ➤ https://www.reuters.com
That does look like a “possible” crack. Good this they got down ok.
ReplyDelete