Peanuts on planes protected by law

The government can't make policies about peanuts on planes without more scientific study. STORY HIGHLIGHTS Policies regarding peanuts on planes were issued for public consideration in June
The Department of Transportation won't pursue changes because of a 1999 law
Many allergy sufferers and parents of kids with allergies support peanut ban on planes
RELATED TOPICSAir TravelFood Allergies and SensitivitiesU.S. Department of Transportation (CNN) -- Packets of peanuts are in no danger of disappearing completely from airplanes. In a nutshell, there's a law protecting them.

Last year, the Department of Transportation asked the public about a possible peanut ban on planes and other measures it said it was considering to address severe allergies among fliers.

It presented three options for debate: a complete ban on serving peanuts on planes, a ban on serving them when a passenger requests a peanut-free flight in advance, or a requirement for peanut-free buffer zones around severely allergic passengers who make advance requests.

The agency also solicited public input on health risks and the idea of maintaining current practice.

But when the new rules concerning issues from airline fees and bumping to tarmac delays were announced Wednesday, the department said it won't take on the peanut issue because of a 12-year-old law blocking the agency from tampering with peanut policy without more scientific study.

Airlines told to stop hiding fees

"The Department is prohibited by law from restricting the serving of peanuts aboard aircraft unless a peer-reviewed study determines that serving of peanuts causes severe reactions among airline passengers. There has been no such peer-reviewed study, so we declined to take action at this time," it said in a statement.

It seems the agency was hoping the climate was right for change. It cited the law in the original proposal in June when it asked the public to weigh in, adding, "this specific congressional ban on our involvement in this issue has not appeared recently in any legislation" before outlining possible alternate peanut policies for airlines.

The department said Wednesday that it wasn't proposing regulations but wanted to give the public an opportunity to comment on whether a peer-reviewed study should be conducted.

Although the government can't impose peanut restrictions for airlines, some carriers have developed their own policies for allergy sufferers. Some no longer serve peanuts and may create peanut-free buffer zones. But Delta, American and other airlines note on their websites that they can't guarantee peanut-free flights.

That lack of certainty had allergy sufferers and parents with children with peanut allergies weighing in enthusiastically in support of a national policy banning peanuts on planes.

"My 6 year old has severe peanut and tree nut allergies and I am very fearful to put him on a plane," Donna Marie Noga wrote in a comment posted on regulations.gov, a site tracking federal rules, proposed rules and public comments.

More than 2,100 comments were logged in response to all of the passenger protections presented, "the vast majority of which were related to the proposal to address peanut allergies in air travel," according to a Department of Transportation summary of comments.

Most of the comments on peanuts were from consumers who favored a total ban, according to agency documents. Peanut trade groups were against a ban, as were some airlines and airline industry groups.

But it seems the agency was out of bounds with its peanut planning.

Less than three weeks after the department posted its policy considerations in June, it issued a clarification citing the 1999 law with the conclusion, "we will comply with this requirement."

The final rule issued Wednesday echoes that sentiment. So, no relief for peanut allergy sufferers in this round of passenger protections.

The final rule announced Wednesday is available at the regulations.gov website, docket DOT-OST-2010-0140.

What do you think? Nuts or no nuts? Share your comments below.

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NTSB: Cracks found in 3 grounded Southwest planes

officials said.

"What we saw with Flight 812 was a new and unknown issue," said Mike Van de Ven, Southwest executive vice president and chief operating officer. He said the airline had complied with federally mandated and Boeing-recommended inspections for the plane.

Federal records show cracks were found and repaired a year ago in the frame of the same Southwest plane.

A March 2010 inspection found 10 instances of cracking in the frame, which is part of the fuselage, and another 11 instances of cracked stringer clips, which help hold the plane's skin on, according to an AP review of FAA records of maintenance problems.

The records for the plane show the cracks were either repaired or the damaged parts replaced. Cracking accounted for a majority of the 28 problem reports filed as a result of that inspection.

It's common for fuselage cracks to be found during inspections of aging planes, especially during scheduled heavy-maintenance checks in which planes are taken apart so that inspectors can see into areas not normally visible.

The Arizona jetliner had gone through about 39,000 cycles of pressurizing, generally a count of takeoffs and landings. Cracks can develop from the constant cycle of pressurizing for flight, then releasing the pressure.

Southwest officials said the plane was given a routine inspection Tuesday and underwent its last so-called heavy check, a more costly and extensive overhaul, in March 2010.

The decompression happened about 18 minutes after takeoff from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

At cruising altitude of some 34,000 feet, the pilots declared an emergency and briefly considered returning to Phoenix before the cabin crew told them of the extent of the damage, Sumwalt said. The plane's voice and data recorders were being examined in Washington.

Southwest operates about 170 of the 737-300s in its fleet of 548 planes, but it replaced the aluminum skin on many of the 300s in recent years, a spokeswoman said. The planes that were grounded over the weekend have not had their skin replaced.

US Airways operates 18 of the older-model 737-300s, but the company said Monday it has been told by Boeing that its jets aren't affected.

Lufthansa has a fleet of 63 Boeing 737s, including 33 of the 300 series. But just three of those are from the same series as the Southwest jet.

"As a precautionary measure, all three aircraft underwent additional checks over the weekend, which didn't yield any further findings. Accordingly, the aircraft are operating as scheduled," said airline spokesman Martin Riecken. "We are in close contact with Boeing regarding this issue and are awaiting further advice from the manufacturer."

In July 2009, a football-sized hole opened up in-flight in the fuselage of another of Southwest's Boeing 737s, depressurizing the cabin. Sumwalt said the two incidents appeared to be unrelated.

A fuselage failure, although extremely rare, can have deadly consequences. In 1988, cracks caused part of the roof of an Aloha Airlines Boeing 737 to peel open while the jet flew from Hilo to Honolulu. The flight attendant died, and dozens of passengers were injured.

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NTSB: Cracks found in 3 grounded Southwest planes

By Nick Oza, The Arizona Republic via AP

Officials discovered cracks in more Southwest jeltiners, and the airline company grounded flights Monday for inspections.

EnlargeCloseBy Nick Oza, The Arizona Republic via AP

Officials discovered cracks in more Southwest jeltiners, and the airline company grounded flights Monday for inspections.

Boeing said Monday that it will issue guidance this week on how airlines should do checks on the affected airplanes now in service.

The 5-foot-long hole tore open Friday in the passenger cabin roof shortly after the Southwest plane carrying 118 people left Phoenix for Sacramento It made a rapid descent, landing at a military base in Yuma, 150 miles southwest of Phoenix. No one was seriously hurt.

Since then, Southwest grounded 79 other Boeing 737-300s and began inspecting them. The grounding caused about 600 flight cancellations over the weekend and another 70 on Monday. Nineteen inspected aircraft showed no problems and will be returned to service.

Checks on the remaining jets are expected to be completed by late Tuesday, the airline said.

READ MORE: Cracks found in Southwest aircraftThe incident raises new questions about the vulnerability of the nation's air fleet to fatigue cracks, more than two decades after cracks caused part of the roof of an Aloha Airlines Boeing 737 to peel open. A flight attendant was sucked out and plunged to her death.

There are 931 737-300 such models in service worldwide, 288 of which are in the U.S. fleet. Boeing said its service bulletin will also require checks on some 737-400 and 737-500 models as well, depending on how many pressurization cycles they have gone through.

The new inspection would be a one-time check, Boeing spokesman Marc Birtel said.

The "service bulletin" Boeing was developing will target all similar 737 models with comparable flight cycle time as the Arizona jet, which was 15 years old and had about 39,000 takeoff and landing cycles, National Transportation Safety Board member Robert Sumwalt said.

The bulletin would outline extensive checks of two lines of "lap joints" that run the length of the fuselage. The NTSB has not mandated the checks, but Sumwalt said the Federal Aviation Administration is likely to make them mandatory.

The NTSB also could issue urgent recommendations for inspections on other 737s if investigators decide a problem has been overlooked. The FAA declined to say if it would require other operators to check their aircraft for similar flaws.

The cracks found in the three Southwest planes developed in two lines of riveted joints that run the length of the aircraft. The agency is focusing its probe on the area of the cracks but has not determined that the cracks caused the rupture.

Two planes have been found with cracks similar to those in the Phoenix aircraft and will be evaluated and repaired before they are returned to service, Southwest said on Sunday in a prepared statement about its inspections. Sumwalt said a third plane had been found with cracks developing.

The NTSB planned a press briefing at 1:30 p.m. PT on Monday.

Previously, the riveted joints were not extensively checked because they were believed not susceptible to fatigue, Sumwalt said.

"Up to this point only visual inspections were required for 737s of this type because testing and analysis did not indicate that more extensive testing was necessary," Sumwalt said. That will likely change after Friday's incident, he said.

The tear along a riveted "lap joint" above the midsection of the plane shows evidence of extensive cracking that hadn't been discovered during routine maintenance

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Southwest grounds planes after roof rips open on 737

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Southwest to ground 79 planes

Passengers describe emergency landingSTORY HIGHLIGHTSA 3- to 4-foot hole is discovered in a plane's fuselageFAA: The captain made a rapid descent from 36,000 feet to 11,000 feetPassengers arrive in Sacramento, California, on a second plane (CNN) -- Southwest Airlines announced Saturday that it is grounding 79 planes for inspection following an incident in which one of its flights was forced to make an emergency landing after a 3- to 4-foot hole tore open in the fuselage of the plane.

The plane -- which had been traveling from Phoenix to Sacramento, California -- managed to land safely at a military base in Yuma, Arizona, on Friday. There authorities "discovered a hole in the top of the aircraft," the company said earlier.

Investigators are trying to determine what caused the "depressurization event" and have "decided to keep a subset of its Boeing 737 fleet out of the flying schedule to begin an aggressive inspection effort in cooperation with Boeing engineers," according to a company statement.

"The safety of our customers and employees is our primary concern, and we are grateful there were no serious injuries," said Mike Van de Ven, Southwest's executive vice president and chief operating officer.

The airline initially reported that 81 of its Boeing 737 aircraft would be grounded, but later decreased the number of planes to be inspected for what it called "aircraft skin fatigue." The inspections will take place at five locations over the course of the next several days, the airline said.

Meanwhile, passengers who were aboard the crippled the Boeing 737 said they had feared for their lives.

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