737 s skin, bear surprise articulations Boeing

A passenger jet prepares to land at the airport in Midway in Chicago on Tuesday.The company cracks in the thinking of Southwest Airlines would later appear in lifespanEngineer the aircraft: it is "unfortunate that we must accelerate our plans of" Boeing said 175 aircraft around the world are affected by service bulletin

Washington (cnn) - Boeing engineers had planned the aluminum skin and the "lap joints" on some Boeing 737 should be inspected for cracks after approximately 60 000 take-off and landing cycles, but the company radically changed this estimate following the termination of fuselage on a Southwest Airlines flight with only 39 000 cycles. "."

Boeing this week published a newsletter informing aircraft operators similar to inspect the aircraft for cracks beneath the surface of the skin after only 30 000 cycles.

The Federal Aviation Administration Tuesday mandated previous inspections and takes a little further, ordering inspections repeat each 500 cycles later, at least until the cause of the April 1 break can be determined.

In a conference call with journalists, engineer of Boeing that Paul Richter said that the company has long recognized cracks as a problem on the bottom row of holes of attachment to the skin panels, but believes that the cracks appears much later in life of the aircraft.

"We did predict that he would need to inspect the aircraft at some point in time." Our plan prior to this event was to recommend inspections from 60 000 cycles, which was a very conservative number, "said Richter.

"Obviously none of the aircraft... are close to this threshold... so I would say it is unfortunate that we must accelerate our plans to recommend that the inspections based on an event of this kind."

Pilot says aircraft cabin pressure

Richter described the FAA to frequently repeated inspections mandate a prudent move, which the FAA may change once he fully understands the nature of the problem.

Boeing said 175 aircraft around the world are affected by service bulletin, and finally a total of 570 aircraft will need inspections of same that they reach the threshold of 30 000 cycle.

It was not clear Tuesday how many 570 aircraft belong to the U.S. airlines.

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