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Southwest Airlines cancels 600 flights over the weekend
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Photo
A member of the National Transportation and Safety Board investigating the emergency landing of Southwest Airlines flight 812 cuts away a portion of the planes fuselage on Sunday, April 3, 2011 in Yuma, Ariz. Federal records show cracks were found and repaired a year ago in the frame of the Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-300 that made an emergency landing at an Arizona military base after a hole was torn from the passenger cabin. No one was seriously injured Friday as the aircraft carrying 118 people rapidly lost cabin pressure and made a controlled descent from 34,500 feet, landing safely near Yuma, Ariz., 150 miles southwest of Phoenix.
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Associated Press
NEW YORK
Southwest Airlines canceled about 600 flights this weekend as the airline continues its inspection of 79 of its Boeing 737 aircraft, in the aftermath of an emergency landing of one of its planes on Friday.
The airline canceled 300 flights Sunday after canceling the same number Saturday. Southwest Airlines spokeswoman Whitney Eichinger says it still hasn’t made a decision about today’s flights.
“We are working as diligently as possible to minimize any impact on [customers’] travel plans,” Eichinger told The Associated Press on Sunday.
Southwest normally has about 3,400 flights each day, though it’s slightly reduced Saturday. That means that almost 9 percent of the total number of flights were canceled each of the two days. No flights were cancelled on Friday.
The aircraft is being inspected over the next several days, the company said.
No one was seriously injured Friday as the aircraft carrying 118 people rapidly lost cabin pressure and made a harrowing but controlled descent from 34,500 feet, landing safely near Yuma, Ariz., 150 miles southwest of Phoenix. But passengers recalled tense minutes after a hole ruptured overhead with a blast, and they fumbled frantically for oxygen masks as the plane descended.
In a release issued Saturday, Southwest said the passengers on board Flight 812 have received a full refund along with an apology and two complimentary round-trip passes on Southwest for future flights.
On Sunday, federal investigators examining the damaged plane in Yuma said the entire length of a 5-foot-long tear in the skin of the aircraft shows evidence of pre-existing fatigue cracking.