Southwest Airlines Flight 812, a 737-300 (Built in 1996) took off from Phoenix Arizona and at cruising altitude suffered a rip in the roof, causing rapid decompression and prompting an emergency descent with an emergency landing in Yuma Ar.http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/video/emergency-landing-13280507

Southwest Airlines Flight 812, a 737-300 (Built in 1996) took off from Phoenix Arizona and at cruising altitude suffered a rip in the roof, causing rapid decompression and prompting an emergency descent with an emergency landing in Yuma Ar.http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/video/emergency-landing-13280507

It will be interesting how this will all play out with Southwest's recent troubles in not inspecting these aircraft.

Seems like a textbook descending and landing. They are correct about the abuse of a Southwest jet. Those jets probably go through far more climbs and descends compared to any other fleet in the world due to their short haul routes, therefore more prone to metal fatigue. Those aircraft are true workhorses.I have no problem with Southwest and would fly them anyday.

Seems like a textbook descending and landing. They are correct about the abuse of a Southwest jet. Those jets probably go through far more climbs and descends compared to any other fleet in the world due to their short haul routes, therefore more prone to metal fatigue. Those aircraft are true workhorses.I have no problem with Southwest and would fly them anyday.

There routes are the same length as many other airlines. They are not a regional carrier with many routes in the sub-300NM range.

Yikes! The video mentions the plane "the jet plunged from 36,000 ft to 19,000 ft in just one minute", i.e. a descent of 17,000 fpm (or 168 KN vertical speed(!), so assuming the jet was cruising at 425 KTAS (.74 M, 244 KIAS at ISA), this would imply a flight path descent angle of 21.6º, for a full minute. Wouldn't the aircraft overspeed (.82 Mmo), even with engines idling and spoilers deployed? And if true, is it even necessary to descend this fast given oxygen generation availability (15 minutes)?- jahman.

A quote from PPRUNEQuote:CNN is reporting, in interview with aviation "consultant", that SWA gets most of its "heavy maintenance" done in El Salvador.a) Correct?:( I though mechanics had to have FAA licenses same as pilots - is there some kind of recognition of non-US licensing that allows mechanics without FAA licenses to do work on aircraft owned and operated in US airspace by US operators?Can not confirm what MRO's SWA is using at this time. I can say though that foreign MRO's are inexpensive and they as domestic MRO's only need a ratio of FAA liscenced to non liscenced labor. Being in a foreign land there is much doubt that the FAA gives said MRO the attention they need to ensure their compliance.Having worked in domestic MRO's I dislike them greatly as profit is a evil motivator. In my opinion, a tech at an airline unionized or not is less likely to rush a job, cut a corner (just do what their supervisor said for fear of losing their job). I can back up this view with my airline experience,in the same areas.

In my opinion, a tech at an airline unionized or not is less likely to rush a job, cut a corner

According to my recollection which may not be perfect the last time we had a well publicized accident caused by shoddy maintenance work - it was done by a unionized worker at Alaska Airlines maintenance shop, not in El Salvador. If this SWA incident is ultimately traced to some overseas MRO then we can have a follow up discussion.

Yikes! The video mentions the plane "the jet plunged from 36,000 ft to 19,000 ft in just one minute", i.e. a descent of 17,000 fpm (or 168 KN vertical speed(!), so assuming the jet was cruising at 425 KTAS (.74 M, 244 KIAS at ISA), this would imply a flight path descent angle of 21.6º, for a full minute. Wouldn't the aircraft overspeed (.82 Mmo), even with engines idling and spoilers deployed? And if true, is it even necessary to descend this fast given oxygen generation availability (15 minutes)?- jahman.

17000fpm is impossible, well, without wings maybe, LOLIn fact there IS one airliner capable of a 15000fpm ROD, the Caravelle due to her vers special speedbrake + spoiler design A stable ROD of more than 7000fpm is not likely. IRL passengers don't even notice an 'emergency' like descent.A few years ago we used to have a rather high level restriction into Vienna coming from the eastern block sideYou had the choice to either slow down and get the gear and the flaps out to get down or to accelerate to Vmo/Mmo and descend with the speedbrakes out. If we opted for the (time saving) high-speed descent we sometimes called a Flight Attendant into the cockpit and told her that is the exactly the maximum ROD you would get during a emergency descent. They were always surprised that it isn't even close to a Hollywood movie.(BTW, most airliners in FSX have a way too high ROD with the boards out and some of them even in clean config.) In case of this 737 it even more likely that the ROD was far less as a hole in a plane is considered as structural damage and you don't increase the IAS during the descend in that case.There's only one way to make an emergency descent, thrustlevers idle, speedbrakes out.The 15min aren't interesting at all because you don't know if all the mask in the cabin have deployed and even if they have, if they have been activated.Furthermore the temp is about -50C at that altitude, it's foggy, your body hurts like hell and the time of useful consciousness is VERY short at 36000ft, so you need to get down to at least 14000ft ASAP

There routes are the same length as many other airlines. They are not a regional carrier with many routes in the sub-300NM range.

It is the amount of hours Southwest runs the aircraft compared to others. Air New Zealand runs 737 on short hauls as well between Auckland - Wellington - Christchurch etc however they don't have the same sort of operational hours as Southwest. Air New Zealand 737's starts about 6 am and stops around 10 pm with a couple of down times through the day operating in a single time zone and similar climate.Southwest runs up to 20 hours a day from the Northern USA to the Southern USA and Coast to Coast. Cold climates, hot climates, humidity, snow, rain and lots of hours in those extremes. A Southwest Aircraft built in 1996 have probably been through more then any other 737 out there in operational hours, short hauls and environmental extremes.

In the Hollywood version, all the passengers would have been sucked out throught that hole in the roof in seconds

Yikes! The video mentions the plane "the jet plunged from 36,000 ft to 19,000 ft in just one minute...

That information was incorrect. The FAA mandates a maximum of 4 minutes for a controlled safe descent to FL140. Later reports are closer to 3.5 minutes for the actual descent.

In the Hollywood version, all the passengers would have been sucked out throught that hole in the roof in seconds

THat is kind of what happened to the Aloha Airlines jet, however it was just one stewardess and not all the passengers. I remember that aircraft after that incident when I was in Hawaii that summer. Pretty scary sight. And they did make a TV Movie about it.

That information was incorrect. The FAA mandates a maximum of 4 minutes for a controlled safe descent to FL140. Later reports are closer to 3.5 minutes for the actual descent.

This is the posted flight profile from Flightaware. Note I saw this yesterday. and it omitted the descent rates, but did show a drop from FL360 to FL190 in 1 minute. Now it shows it had just reached FL340 before the emergency descent to 11000. with a max descent rate of -5400fpm.http://flightaware.com/live/flight/SWA812/history/20110401/2225Z/KPHX/KNYL/tracklog

but did show a drop from FL360 to FL190 in 1 minute.

NO. Everybody makes the same mistake - look carefully in the left column where time stamps are. It is not 1 minute, it is in fact TWO minutes. And not from FL360 but from FL300.

"According to my recollection which may not be perfect the last time we had a well publicized accident caused by shoddy maintenance work - it was done by a unionized worker at Alaska Airlines maintenance shop, not in El Salvador. If this SWA incident is ultimately traced to some overseas MRO then we can have a follow up discussion."No there was more to it than that,The airline petitioned the feds to change the grease type, and the grease interval without proper engineering disposition,and the feds went along with it.All about money.