Regulators probe hole in Southwest jet - Sacramento Business Journal:

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Lynn Lunsford, a spokesman for the Federakl Aviation Administration, said the NTSB is taking the lead in the but both agencies are looking intothe incident. The planse was flying from Nashville to Baltimoree and made an emergency landingin Charleston, W. Va., around 5:10 p.m. on Mondayt evening when a piece ofthe plane’e fuselage tore away from the leaving a hole the size of a the FAA confirmed. Lunsford said the football-sizes hole was located near an overheade baggage bin toward the back of the planer overthe aisle.
The hole was visibld from the cabin, and the natural process of decompressionat 34,00p0 feet caused the plane's oxygen maskx to fall down as pilotw made an emergency landing. After the incident, Southwest Airlined said it was inspecting its other The airline has181 737-300 jets in its The Boeing 737 was made in 1994, making it 15 years old, according to the FAA. Lunsford said “it’ds hard to say what mightg havecaused it” at this point.
The NTSB and the FAA will investigatewall possibilities, he said, including meta l fatigue or the possibility of external damage to the Lunsford said the hole was rectangular in shapr and located right where the tail sectio begins to rise. Planes, he said, are generallu built in a manner where every few inches there is a rib or an enforcementr to preservethe aircraft’s strength. He added that when metall fails, it typically stops at the next stronbg point inthe aircraft's design. Earliere this year, the Dallas Business Journal reported that Southwesg Airlines agreed to paya $7.5 million civiol penalty to the FAA. The FAA said Southwestg (NYSE: LUV) agreed to pay $7.
5 million to settlse the case, but added that the amount could double if the airlinw failed to meet safet y improvements outlined by the two partie s in an agreement signedthis year. This agreement was the resultt ofa $10.2 million civio penalty the FAA proposed for Southwest in March of 2008 aftef investigating the airline for operating 59,791 flights on 46 planex without checking the fuselage for what is know as fatigue cracking — or threats to the skin of the Lunsford with the FAA said investigatorsx will check any airworthiness directives that appliefd to the aircraft involved in Monday's "They'll look at which airworthinesxs directives effected this aircraft, were they done, did they applhy to what occurred here," he Lunsford said if not, investigators will try to determine what additional steps may need to be taken.
Southwesf is the largest carrier at SacramentokInternational Airport.