Southwest Airlines cancels around 300 flights again today

Southwest Airlines (Dallas) was forced once again to cancel around 300 flights today as it continues inspections on its 79 Boeing 737-300s.

The company issued the following statement today:

“In cooperation with Boeing, an additional inspection program was set up for a subset of the Southwest 737-300. The inspection involved a non-destructive test (NDT) in the form of High-Frequency Eddy current of the aircraft skin. This test is designed to detect any subsurface fatigue in the skin that is not visible to the eye.

As of 4 p.m. (1600) Central time Sunday, 19 planes had undergone the intense inspection with no findings, and those planes have been returned to service.
In two other airplanes, the testing did detect small, subsurface cracks. Further evaluation and potential repairs will be necessary before those planes are returned to service.

Inspections of the remaining aircraft in the sub-fleet (79 total) will continue for the next few days. As inspections are completed with no findings, those planes will continue to be put back into service on Sunday and Monday. The airline anticipates completing the inspections by late Tuesday. The 79 aircraft designated for the additional inspections were designed differently in the manufacturing process.

Southwest continues its cooperation to the ongoing investigation being led by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) into the cause of the hole in the airplane which diverted to Yuma, AZ, on Friday, April 1.

Copyright Photo: Roy Lock. Please click on the photo for this aircraft information.

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