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Cracking Up? Southwest Cancels Another 100 Flights Today for Inspection
Southwest Airlines' "accidental sunroof" is a little trick they don't want to repeat, which is how about 100 of their flights have come to be canceled today, as the airline continues to put older planes in their fleet through inspections for cracks in the fuselage.
100 is nothing compared to the 600 Southwest flights that never took off over the weekend after one of the Boeing 737-300 aircraft suffered a cracked fuselage and was forced to make an emergency landing shortly after takeoff from Phoenix. Flight 812 was bound for Sacramento.
Suspicion of malfunction is running pretty high on the Southwest flights that have made it up in the air. Yesterday a flight from Oakland bound for San Diego was diverted to LAX "when the crew noticed an electrical smell," according to the Daily Breeze. The airline is working to determine what caused the smell, and that aircraft--also a Boeing 737-300--is out of commission until it gets the all-clear.
"Spokeswoman Brandy King says Southwest has inspected 33 similar planes and returned them to service and expects to complete checks on remaining grounded planes by late Tuesday," reports the AP. The National Transportation and Safety Board, however, found "widespread cracking" in the airplane used for the aborted Flight 812. Three other planes inspected this weekend were found to have small cracks in them as well.
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