Southwest Airlines' Grounds Some of its Fleet of 737s After Hole in Fuselage

Image from Flight Global

When I was dating The Other Half, he'd often try to get me to play "guess that plane." He'd point to the sky and ask me the maker, model and airline of a plane in the sky. Unbeknownst to him, pointing at anything, and asking me to identify it (or even see it) is a Herculean task (just ask my mom). To me, most planes look like amorpheous blobs--silhouettes at best--even if I happen to have my glasses on. But the one I was good at was Southwest Airlines. Though there may be exceptions, nearly all of their planes are Boeing 737s! And they have a distinctive paint job. It was always the one I could get right.

The ubiquity of the 737 in Southwest's fleet is turning out to be a problem, now that a mysterious hole opened up in the roof of one, mid-flight. Fortunately, everyone is okay (though I'll bet there were a lot of emergency changes of pants afterward), and the incident is now less mysterious. But it's causing havoc in airline schedules for the short term.

[Excerpt]

Investigators Find Extensive Cracking on Troubled Southwest Jetliner

Southwest Airlines mechanics were working Sunday to cut out a section of ruptured fuselage from a Boeing 737-300 that was forced to make an emergency landing at a southwestern Arizona military base. . .

Read more (with video) at: AOL News