What: Southwest Airlines 737 en route from Nashville to Baltimore Where: Charleston’s Yeager Airport When: 6:30 p.m Monday July 13 Who: 126 passengers and five crew Why: While en route, the cabin depressurized when a hole (metal fatigue?) approximately the size of a football appeared in the fuselage. The plane managed to land safely in Charleston West Virginia. The NTSB is investigating.
(News photos don’t look football sized, but it is sure big enough to see plenty of daylight through.)
George’s Point of View
The 737 is a true workhorse, built to land and takeoff almost without too much delay except to load and unload passengers.
I fly Southwest to Las Vegas all the time. It’s a short hop.
I must admit, that every time I fly in one of these planes I have begun to worry about the age and/or the fatigue of the structure. A trip like one from LA to Vegas, most times, is a beating on the passengers and the plane itself. My guess is that 4 out of 5 of these short trips encounter turbulence, sometimes bad turbulence. This beats up the plane. In this case, the plane being beaten up was manufactured in 1994. That’s a lot of years of turbulence abuse. Metal fatigue in these conditions is not surprising, and neither is it completely unexpected. An inspection on this plane last January revealed eight cracks in the frame that required repairs.
I’m just glad it was a BOEING, and that the pilot remained in control of the aircraft. And of course, it’s a good thing that Southwest is now inspecting all of their planes for fatigue. Last year Southwest was fined $7.5 million for overdue inspections. I hope this is not going to be a repeat of last year. All the timely inspections in the world aren’t going to make this plane any younger. Maybe it’s time to put this particular plane out to pasture.
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Strategist, consultant and entrepreneur, George Hatcher works with some of the world's most renowned law offices. George is a strategist for lawyers, searching the details of every case, doing the detective work to decide if a case is or is not viable. Aviation cases of company demand a great investment; and George determines if the case is strong enough to guarantee the investment of millions of dollars. Sometimes, this means traveling to different countries to interact with clients and lawyers who have requested his assistance. Sometimes this means getting directly involved with family interviews, like individual interviews with the families of deceased in the accident of the TAM. After 45 years consulting in this arena, George knows his field. George is the lawyers go-to guy to do what needs to be done. George represents you with optimum ethics and professionalism. He has it takes to find you justice.
George Hatcher trabalha com alguns dos mais prestigiados escritórios de advocacia no mundo, estrategista e consultor pessoal e empresarial. George é um estrategista para advogados, buscando detalhes, fazendo o trabalho do detetive para decidir se um caso é viável ou não. Casos de companhias aéreas exigem um grande investimento. George determina se o caso tem conteúdo suficiente para garantir um investimento de milhões de dólares. Algumas vezes, o questionamento jurídico significa viajar para diferentes países para encontrar com clientes e seus advogados que pediram sua ajuda. Algumas vezes isso significa se envolver em um caso e lidar com entrevistas com vítimas e famílias. (por exemplo, entrevistas individuais com as famílias dos mortos no acidente da TAM). Depois de 45 anos sendo consultor nessa área, George sabe muito bem o que funciona. George é a pessoa ideal procurada por advogados para executar qualquer tarefa necessária. George representa você com o melhor da sua ética e profissionalismo. Ele tem o que você precisa para encontrar justiça.