Perhaps was more but they were all like NTSB put it "contributing factors". The main factor was a lazy worker who apparently figured a way to tire less by not performing scheduled lubrication at all or very little (if I recall this was not his first screw that he treated this way). And yes, no one caught him. After they checked his logbooks they found out that lubrication that normally should take 4 hrs took him miraculously only 1 hr. So much for ingenuity and professionalism of unionized work force.

In my 20 plus years as a mechanic,it was always management /supervisor types that cut corners or pencil whipped maintenance docs,not the mech on the floor. I am sorry to say that I worked in MRO "Chop shops" in several southern "right to work" states,and as a result of what I witnessed,left airline maintenance.

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.

Yes!And according to the flight path by Flight Aware (I quote the raw data cause it keeps a changin'!):

Time    KGS     FL    FPM-------------------------06:57PM 405 34,400 -1,38006:58PM 400 30,700 -4,92006:59PM   ?      ?      ?07:00PM 428 19,700 -5,40007:01PM 423 14,600 -4,32007:02PM 407 11,100 -1,860

Average FPS from FL344 to FL 109 (5 minutes) is:(111 - 344) / (7:02 - 6:57 + 1) = -23,300 ft / 5 min = -4,660 fpmNow that's what I call more reasonable!What a great site you can get the flight path data!Cheers,- jahman.

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.

When I heard the SWA news, I thought immediately of this Aloha incident. As I recall, they reported the cause as metal fatigue because of all the takeoffs and landings, plus climbs and descents, that the Aloha fleet goes through. Serving only the islands with their short-haul planes, many of their flights are under an hour and there are lots and lots every day.One news report said that the failure on the SWA plane was in a non-exposed area which is not usually looked at in routine inspections. Given the history of the Aloha incident, I'm surprised they don't make sure to check these non-exposed areas more regularly.

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.

The day before, as I said, it indicated no descent rate, and had the plane at FL360 at 6:59 and FL190 at 7:00. That is where the news got it's story from. Since then it has been updated with the more reasonable rates and showing it only reached FL340 at 6:57, FL300 at 6:58 and FL190 at 7:00

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.

Then why hasn't this happened to other similar routes with Alaska, Air Tran Ryan Air, Easy Jet, America West/US Air? These are all aircraft from airlines that go from extreme conditions and fly up to 20 hours a day and are of the same age.

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

06:57PM 33.69 -114.10 282° West 405 466 34,400 .....07:02PM 33.69 -114.77 257° West 407 468 11,100 That looks more like five minutes, but remember that flightaware doesn't receive constant updates. They get periodic reports...Remember that the requirement is controlled descent to FL110 (11,000') within four minutes.

Then why hasn't this happened to other similar routes with Alaska, Air Tran Ryan Air, Easy Jet, America West/US Air? These are all aircraft from airlines that go from extreme conditions and fly up to 20 hours a day and are of the same age.

Southewst dwarfs these other carriers in terms of number of aircraft in service, so statistically, they are the most likely ones to see this. Also, the Southwest business plan is to get the most out of every airplane, by minimizing ground time (with tricks like their cattle-car boarding procedures,) so I'd imagine that Southwest gets more takeoffs and landings per plane than most other carriers.The question I would ask is why hasn't the FAA ordered these other airlines to inspect thier planes as well? I'm guessing we will see this within a couple of weeks.

The question I would ask is why hasn't the FAA ordered these other airlines to inspect thier planes as well?

Because they have a lot fewer cycles.

Then why hasn't this happened to other similar routes with Alaska, Air Tran Ryan Air, Easy Jet, America West/US Air? These are all aircraft from airlines that go from extreme conditions and fly up to 20 hours a day and are of the same age.

Simple.Alaska Air, Air Tran, Ryanair and EasyJet do not operate this aircraft. America West and US Air do operate this aircraftSouthwest is the only airline to upgrade the 737-300 in 2008 in order to improve commonality with the 737-700, and keep up with the performance standards of the 737-700, no other operator has done that..America West and US Air did not make the same sort on investments and upgrades into their 737-300's as Southwest and have instead began to phase them out.The other airline I mentioned Air New Zealand was the last airline to purchase and operate the 737-300 and have announced no plans to ground this aircraft at this time. I fly in these 737-300 quite often actually as they are common here. But they do not get the same sort of scheduling or demands as a Southwest 737-300.Southwest is the only airline to keep these ones going alongside the 737-700's and invest in them further to extend their operating lives.

Simple.Alaska Air, Air Tran, Ryanair and EasyJet do not operate this aircraft. America West and US Air do operate this aircraftSouthwest is the only airline to upgrade the 737-300 in 2008 in order to improve commonality with the 737-700, and keep up with the performance standards of the 737-700, no other operator has done that..America West and US Air did not make the same sort on investments and upgrades into their 737-300's as Southwest and have instead began to phase them out.The other airline I mentioned Air New Zealand was the last airline to purchase and operate the 737-300 and have announced no plans to ground this aircraft at this time. I fly in these 737-300 quite often actually as they are common here. But they do not get the same sort of scheduling or demands as a Southwest 737-300.Southwest is the only airline to keep these ones going alongside the 737-700's and invest in them further to extend their operating lives.

Yes, but those airlines operated or used to operate others in the classics and either still fly them or just recently stopped flying them. United is another airline you can add to the list that operated classic 737's. I think more is going to be found out in the lack of maintenance and not due to the number of cycles.

Yes, but those airlines operated or used to operate others in the classics and either still fly them or just recently stopped flying them. United is another airline you can add to the list that operated classic 737's. I think more is going to be found out in the lack of maintenance and not due to the number of cycles.

I agree they should look into maintenance as a priority however I was just pointing out that Southwest is the only airline to schedule and operate a 737-300's alongside the 737-700 and for a longer period of time compared to other operators. They are the only one to upgrade this fleet to operate with the NG's. This is possibly why their is metal fatigue on this fleet compared to the others as others probably phased out their 737-300 before this became a problem for them.With every cycle their is expansion and retraction and that is what causes the metal fatigue. It is up to Maintenance to locate these problems. Obviously they missed out on 2 Southwest Jets so far. I don't know if other operators found any cracks in their 737-300 and have not reported that but I am thinking it is only Southwest that has had this type of fatigue in their jets. That proof is in the 2 that have decompressed in-flight recently.

I agree they should look into maintenance as a priority however I was just pointing out that Southwest is the only airline to schedule and operate a 737-300's alongside the 737-700 and for a longer period of time compared to other operators. They are the only one to upgrade this fleet to operate with the NG's. This is possibly why their is metal fatigue on this fleet compared to the others as others probably phased out their 737-300 before this became a problem for them.With every cycle their is expansion and retraction and that is what causes the metal fatigue. It is up to Maintenance to locate these problems. Obviously they missed out on 2 Southwest Jets so far. I don't know if other operators found any cracks in their 737-300 and have not reported that but I am thinking it is only Southwest that has had this type of fatigue in their jets. That proof is in the 2 that have decompressed in-flight recently.

After working for an airline that had 737-300's, it is widely known there is problems in these areas. I believe this is the second time Southwest has been investigated for this same thing in about 7-10 years.

Easyjet used to have 737-300s in the fleet but they were moved on a long time ago, replaced by 737-700s which themselves are being moved on. Easyjet is a mainly Airbus A319 operator now.Ryanair operated the 737-200 but they have not been used by Ryanair now for a few years due. Ryanair is an all 737-800 operator, has 272 of them in service and this month the average age of their fleet is 3.2 years. Oldest has been in service since 2002 and the youngest delivered last week.Stats were taken from various websites.Craig

An ABC report last night stated, after an initial inspection of Southwest's 737-300's, they have found an additional 3 aircraft with cracks in the fuselage. The FAA has grounded all of them.

After working for an airline that had 737-300's, it is widely known there is problems in these areas. I believe this is the second time Southwest has been investigated for this same thing in about 7-10 years.

I believe it was recently, within the last 2 years. I think it was right around the time American Airlines was being sited for problems with their MD-80's.