COMMENTS: There’s a Hole in my Boeing
The aftermath of Friday's midair emergency on a Southwest Airlines flight was the unanimous choice for Story of the Day. All three newscasts led with the questions surrounding Boeing 737 jetliners after a hole appeared in the roof of one fuselage at 34,000 feet. Oxygen breathing masks were released. The pilots put the plane into a steep dive to restore air pressure. ABC and NBC had their transportation correspondents, Lisa Stark and Tom Costello, lead off with the Federal Aviation Administration's response: an inspection order for metal fatigue cracks in older 737 models, the workhorse of the Southwest fleet, whose schedule depends on frequent short-haul takeoff-and-landing cycles. CBS went to Dallas with Don Teague.
NBC followed up with anchor Brian Williams' interview with Robert Sumwalt of the National Transportation Safety Board. Sumwalt reassured us that the schedule for safety inspections depended on a plane's number of cycles, not its years of service, so the fact that Southwest runs a short-haul fleet does not mean that its planes are underinspected.
READER COMMENTS BELOW:
You must be logged in to this website to leave a comment. Please click here to
log in so you can participate in the discussion.
