Southwest In-Flight Fuselage Rupture

Southwest In-Flight Fuselage Rupture (With Video)

...a six foot long gash opened with a loud bang in the top of the cabin. They said the sky was was visible through the opening and that some passengers lost consciousness during the rapid descent to 11,000 feet...

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Those of you that fly regularly for work, or other, this is a little disconcerting. I don't mind admitting I might have peed myself if that opening was above my head at 36,000ft!!

You got nothing to worry about. Most commercial planes are designed to be able to fly perfectly normal with holes and decompression, but you might still get your pants a bit dirty. I wonder how that really happened. I saw the video of it on tv, and in a certain part, it looked like something ran into the top exterior, giving it the look similar to that of a spoon ripping though aluminum foil, with all those waves at the end. Weird.

idrinorbarsaku said:

You got nothing to worry about. Most commercial planes are designed to be able to fly perfectly normal with holes and decompression, but you might still get your pants a bit dirty. I wonder how that really happened. I saw the video of it on tv, and in a certain part, it looked like something ran into the top exterior, giving it the look similar to that of a spoon ripping though aluminum foil, with all those waves at the end. Weird.

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Probably an Alien abduction attempt that went awry.

Seriously, glad no one was badly hurt and I agree that I probably would have needed a change of undies afterwards also.

razormac said:

probably an alien abduction attempt that went awry.

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lololol....

idrinorbarsaku said:

You got nothing to worry about. Most commercial planes are designed to be able to fly perfectly normal with holes and decompression...

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Yes - my mind might be aware of that; however, I still reserve the right to relieve myself in my pants if a part of the roof opens over my head in flight.

I'm also aware that they are 'designed' to fly under a host of undesirable circumstances, engine failures, etc. but I'm in no hurry to be a part of that design validation process. Afterall - if everything always operated as designed - there would be no crashes (discounting those attributed to human failure)? My mind is also aware that many of the 'design features' employed in today's aircraft - are directly as results of events where it was learned the hard way that the design was insufficient.

Last time use SouthWest to go from LA to Phoenix for me. And America West is worse!

Yikes. I'm a nervous flier to begin with. I'm one of those people who starts to feel palpitations each time the pitch of the engines changes or the plane goes through a rough patch of turbulence. This little video doesn't help with my issue

Just a few weeks ago, I flew on a "puddle jumper" from Cleveland to Harrisburg on my way back home from Arizona. This was one of those prop-driven commuter planes that they take on short jaunts. The plane just looked old, and not exactly well maintained by the looks of it. Couldn't help but be nervous on take off (which took awhile - we were at our "cruising altitude" of 24,000 feet for just a few minutes before we began our descent). Anyway, the flight went fine, but with all of the financial problems in the US commercial airline business, and the state of some of the aircraft, stories like this don't come as a huge surprise.

cwa107 said:

... but with all of the financial problems in the US commercial airline business, and the state of some of the aircraft, ...

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I fly a lot - (well, in spurts anyway) - but have had exactly the same thoughts as well. I got on a Delta flight recently where the interior of the plane just seemed dingy and unkempt, and the intercom was distorted to the point of being painful. The first thought was - if this is the maintenance on what we CAN see - I'm a little concerned about what attention to detail is being applied to what we CAN'T! I mean - it was just a few years ago - where pilots had to take salary cuts - and that trickled across all the airline employees. You can't help but wonder if that maintenance guy is taking his job quite as seriously since taking a pay cut. [I try not to think about it too much ]

The hardest thing about flying is that once you're in the plane - you are completely powerless to affect the outcome.