Passenger sees Boeing 757-200 “wing coming apart” mid-air — United flight from San Francisco to Boston makes emergency landing in Denver::A United Airlines flight to Boston was diverted to Denver because of an issue with the plane’s wing.

  • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
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    9 months ago

    “Sitting right on the wing and the noise after reaching altitude was much louder than normal. I opened the window to see the wing looking like this,” user octopus_hug wrote. "How panicked should I be? Do I need to tell a flight crew member?

    Holy shit, redditors are a special breed. Yes, you should probably tell someone.

    I should go and find the comment.

      • GBU_28@lemm.ee
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        9 months ago

        “hi sorry, I’m sitting in 20A, and, I don’t want to make a fuss or anything, but I’d appreciate if you took a peek out of my window,… Put me at ease that something I noticed on the wing is normal.”

        “Here, I took a photo, mind looking?”

        • wewbull@feddit.uk
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          9 months ago

          That’s far better than going “HOLY SHIT THE WING IS FALLING OFF!”. In an emergency you need to be calm but decisive, and not spread panic.

    • dhork@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Now, all the AI are going to wonder how panicked they should be if their plane disassembled mid-flight

  • arefx@lemmy.ml
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    9 months ago

    What the fuck is going on at Boeing? Are they cutting that many corners?

    • TheRealKuni@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      This occurred on a 29 year old plane. This is almost certainly just a one-off issue. Unless it starts happening frequently with other 757s, it’s nothing to be overly concerned about. And in that case, the NTSB would figure out why it’s happening and issue a directive.

      Planes are designed on a “Swiss cheese” model. Swiss cheese (as Americans call any variety resembling Emmental) is full of holes, but you can’t usually see all the way through a block of it. On a plane, something might fail and you can’t always prevent that, but you can make sure that there is enough redundancy that if something does go wrong you’re still covered. For something to cause a plane to crash, the “holes” have to line up so something could pass all the way through the “cheese.”

        • TheRealKuni@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          This “one-off” issue was spotted on dozens of 737s.

          This issue with a damaged wing slat on this particular 29-year-old 757 was spotted on dozens of 737s? Do you have a source for that?

          Unless you’re confusing this with the 737 MAX 9 door plug issue. That is not a one-off, that is a manufacturing/assembly issue. And that’s my point. The door plug situation is a systemic problem on many brand new planes, whereas this story is about a relatively small issue on a 29-year-old plane.

          Something being damaged on a 757 shouldn’t shake people’s confidence in Boeing. Shit going wrong in the design and manufacturing of the 737 MAX series should.

    • pulaskiwasright@lemmy.ml
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      9 months ago

      I wish the article said how old the plane is. A lot of Boeing jets are 50+ years old and at that point, you have to blame the airline. But this article doesn’t say.

      • diffusive@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        At least in Europe, passengers jets are new because more fuel efficient at the “normal” speed. These old jets are then transformed in cargo where they go very slow so fuel efficiency goes up by other means (and the old jet is way cheaper).

        This was a passenger plane so i doubt it was anywhere close to 50 years old

      • PipedLinkBot@feddit.rocksB
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        9 months ago

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    • supercriticalcheese@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Nothing for this case at least.

      It’s completely unrelated to Boeing per se. Likely a maintenance issue, maybe repair done wrong.

    • XIIIesq@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Where does it say that the airline didn’t send the plane for maintenance?

      Airlines don’t do their own maintenance, they send them back to Boeing.

      A plane isn’t like a car, you don’t just have a go at changing the oil or fixing the brakes yourself and then hope for the best, you send it to the approved place when scheduled or you don’t fly.

    • SendMePhotos@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Eh, idk if plane age really matters. They are completely disassembled and reassembled per standard every year to ensure that they are good to go.

      Student planes are like 1960s, give or take.

      E: I’m being told by comments that they do not do teardowns. Idk. I fly planes, not work on them. My CFIs have told me they do annual teardowns. So… Idk. Maybe, maybe not?

      • Vash63@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        It does matter. Shows this is more a maintenance issue than a defect in the model.

      • mp2@lemmy.ml
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        9 months ago

        They are absolutely not “completely disassembled every year.” Where do you people come up with this stuff?

        • SendMePhotos@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          My FBO/CFIs said that they teardown the airplanes every annual to every nut and bolt. I applied that and assumed that meant the big ones, too.

        • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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          9 months ago

          They’re just plain facts. Did you know that the pilots each have to take a shit before they board? The airlines force them to do it, to conserve on fuel.

      • AMDIsOurLord@lemmy.ml
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        9 months ago

        No the FUCK they’re not

        There are inspections and flight worthiness manuals. Nobody is going to complete tear down a fucking jet and bolt it together again, that’s literally less secure.

      • kcuf@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        You should read what’s done in an annual. For GA, aopa had a good article recently talking about doing the right maintenance because doing everything your AP suggests may be more intrusive and less healthy for the plane. It’s not as aggressive you’re claiming.

        Also as others note, age matters in determining where the issue came from. Eg this almost certainly isn’t a Boeing issue.

        As a new pilot I really recommend watching the show Mayday Aircraft Investigations, it’s very informative. The accidents are for commercial aircraft, but still I think seeing all the details and the root causes and breakdown in process is enlightening even as a private pilot.

        • SendMePhotos@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Thanks, I’ll check it out. My exp. with flying was… I was in school for commercial aviation. I think I made it 2 years in? Got my PPL and was making my way through instrument before I made a life decision to buy a house for my family. I could either afford school or the house, but not both.

          I love aviation and flying is the single greatest thing in the world to me… Besides my family.

          The air safety institute videos are a great watch, too. Also check out Lucaas, Captain Joe, or 74 gear for more aviation videos.

    • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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      9 months ago

      But also, even though they’re older, they’re still loved by pilots and are good in difficult conditions because they’re pretty over-engined

    • nyan@lemmy.cafe
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      9 months ago

      There are Douglas DC3s still flying in commercial service (not many, but a few). Those were built in the 1940s. 2004 is not all that old a plane.

      • WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Still, it’s old enough that problems like this should be attributed to lack of maintenance on the airline’s part rather than an issue in the design or manufacture of the plane.

      • Pistcow@lemm.ee
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        9 months ago

        Point is, it’s a maintenance issue, the media is quick to shit on Boeing. I mean they earned that but try to have integrity while reporting.

    • TheRealKuni@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      This particular plane is 29 years old.

      That said, commercial airliners can go for decades just fine as long as they are maintained properly. Newer planes will be more efficient and have some newer features, but a tried-and-true airframe that has been well maintained is worth keeping around.

    • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Holy cow. My sisters VW Beetle did this once, too. It was quite fresh out of inspection/repair, and whatever those guys did to the motor, they forgot to pull the screws tight again…

  • unphazed@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    So with airlines needing bailouts, price gouging, and cost cutting affecting safety, maybe bring back the CAB era laws?

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    9 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    BOSTON - A United Airlines flight from San Francisco to Boston was diverted to Denver on Monday because of an issue with the plane’s wing - and a worried passenger on board captured the apparent problem on video.

    “Just about to land in Denver with the wing coming apart on the plane,” Kevin Clarke says in a video shared with CBS News.

    Clarke said the wing issue became apparent after takeoff from San Francisco.

    The passengers were put on a different plane and landed in Boston early Tuesday morning.

    Boeing has been under scrutiny since a door panel on a different kind of aircraft, a 737 Max 9, blew off during an Alaska Airlines flight in January.

    Earlier this month, the head of the FAA pledged to use more people to monitor aircraft manufacturing and hold Boeing accountable for any safety rule violations.


    The original article contains 286 words, the summary contains 143 words. Saved 50%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!