Southwest Airlines Finds Five Planes In Its 737 Fleet In Need Of Repair

CHICAGO – APRIL 05: A Southwest Airlines passenger jet prepares to land at Midway Airport on April 5, 2011 in Chicago, Illinois. Southwest Airlines said it has finished inspecting its grounded 737-300 series planes and of the nearly 80 planes five of them have cracks in the aluminum skin. The inspections come after Southwest Flight 812 had to make an emergency landing when a piece of its fuselage skin was torn while on its way from Phoenix to Sacramento. The discovery prompted the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Boeing to require emergency inspections on a portion of the 737 fleet manufactured during the 1980s and 1990s for the same fatigue cracks in the fuselage like the ones on the Southwest jets. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images) horizontal,usa,finance,outdoors,business,transportation,flying,sky,preparation,illinois,chicago – illinois,passenger,land,aerospace industry,midway airport,southwest airlines,jets