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Airlines advised to inspect Boeing 737s

By Yu Hongyan (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2011-04-06 16:01

US aircraft maker Boeing advised airlines, including those in China, to inspect certain 737 models after a fuselage rupture occurred on a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-300 in the US, the National Business Daily reported Wednesday.

Boeing has advised its customers, including mainland carriers, to check the aluminum skin and "lap joints" on certain 737-300, -400, and -500 series airplanes, said Wang Yukui, vice president of Communications at Boeing China.

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Wang told the paper that the inspection is not to be implemented on all mainland's 737 planes, but only to the three models with more than 30,000 take-off and landing cycles.

A Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-300 plane with 39,781 flight cycles experienced a rapid decompression when the lap joint cracked and opened up on April 1, resulting in injury to a flight attendant, the paper said.

US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) then mandated inspections for early models of 737 models, which applies to about 175 aircraft worldwide, 80 of which are registered in the US.

It is not clear how many of the rest are serving in China, Wang said.

The paper said that as of February 2010, there were 106 Boeing 737-300 planes in the mainland, with 30 of them belonging to Air China, 25 to China Southern Airlines and 18 to China Eastern Airlines.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China had not issued any directives on this matter as of April 6.