Boeing alters its estimate for plane inspections

A Southwest Airlines passenger jet prepares to land at Midway Airport in Chicago on Tuesday. STORY HIGHLIGHTSThe company thought cracks would appear later in a plane's lifespanEngineer: It's "regrettable that we had to accelerate our plans"Boeing says 175 planes worldwide are affected by service bulletin Washington (CNN) -- Boeing engineers had anticipated the aluminum skin and "lap joints" on certain Boeing 737s would need to be inspected for cracks after roughly 60,000 take-off and landing cycles, but the company drastically altered that estimate in the wake of the fuselage rupture on a Southwest Airlines flight with only 39,000 cycles.

Boeing this week issued a bulletin advising operators of similar aircraft to inspect the planes for subsurface skin cracks after only 30,000 cycles.

The Federal Aviation Administration on Tuesday mandated the earlier inspections and took it one step further, ordering the inspections be repeated every 500 cycles thereafter, at least until the cause of the April 1 rupture can be determined.

In a conference call with reporters, Boeing engineer Paul Richter said the company has long recognized cracks as a problem on the lower row of fastener holes on the skin panels, but believed the cracks would appear much later in the aircraft's lifespan.

View the Original article