Nok Air 737s not part of US FAA 737 urgent safety directive

[fotojourn]

Patee Sarasin, chief executive officer of Thailand regional airline Nok Air (Nok), has confirmed that none of the 737-400 series aircraft the airline operates are affected by an emergency safety directive issued by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for older Boeing 737 Classic series aircraft.

 

The FAA issued the inspection mandate yesterday, April 4, 2011, after unseen cracks expanded into a 0.5sq.m (5sq.ft) hole mid-flight late last week in the roof of a 737-300 operated by US carrier Southwest Airlines, causing it to make an emergency landing and seeing it suspend flight operations of all its 79 Boeing 737-300 aircraft.

Patee Sarasin, CEO, Nok Air

 

The initial FAA order affects 175 of the 1,988 Boeing 737-300/-400/-500 series, termed the Boeing 7373 Classic Series, of short-to medium-range, narrow-body jet aircraft produced between 1981 and 2000, with 90 of the affected aircraft registered outside of the USA.

 

THAI said it “is waiting to be informed by the FAA via an AD notice if any of our aircraft required inspections. The FAA have details of all of our aircraft duty-cycles and if they are required to be inspected this will be undertaken immediatelyâ€, a THAI spokesperson not authorized to be quoted buy the media said.

 

Neither Thai AirAsia or Bangkok Airways operate Boeing 737s.

 

 

[Bangkoktraveler]

Scary shit flying over Arizona and your plane becomes a convertible.

[fotojourn]

Boeing have now said that the microcracks are occurring in the 737 classics at less than half their estimated flight cycle, hence the inspection order for those that have done 30,000 take-offs and landings.

 

Nok's 737 are 19-years old and THAIs are 15 - the factory build "life" of a 737 classic is 20 years, though there are plenty flying that are older than that.

 

As of this morning THAI is still "waiting on the FAA". Seriously, THAI know how many flight cycles their aircraft have done. They don't need to wait for anything.

 

And none of the Thai newspapers have written anything about it that I'm aware of, yet Australian and UK newspapers ran stories referring to their respective carriers.