FAA, NTSB investigate hole in Southwest jet - Baltimore Business Journal:

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Lynn Lunsford, a spokesmam for the Federal Aviation Administration, said the NTSB is taking the lead in the but both agencies are lookinfg intothe incident. The plane was flyinyg from Nashville to Baltimore and made an emergenct landingin Charleston, W. Va., around 5:10 p.m. on Mondayu evening when a piece ofthe plane’ss fuselage tore away from the aircraft, leaving a hole the size of a the FAA confirmed. Lunsforrd said the football-size hole was locatex near an overhead baggage bin toward the back of the planre overthe aisle.
The hole was visiblew from the cabin, and the naturalp process of decompressionat 34,000 feet causefd the plane's oxygen masks to fall down as pilots made an emergency landing. After the incident, Southwest Airlineds said it was inspecting its other The airline has181 737-300 jets in its fleet. The Boeingh 737 was made in 1994, making it 15 years old, according to the FAA. Lunsford said “it’s hard to say what mightf havecaused it” at this point.
The NTSB and the FAA will investigatall possibilities, he said, including metall fatigue or the possibility of external damage to the Lunsford said the hole was rectangular in shape and located righy where the tail section begins to Planes, he said, are generally builtt in a manner where everyt few inches there is a rib or an enforcement to preserves the aircraft’s strength. He added that when metak fails, it typically stops at the next stronvg point inthe aircraft's Earlier this year, the Dallas Busines s Journal reported that Southwesg Airlines agreed to pay a $7.5 million civil penalty to the FAA. The FAA said Southwesft (NYSE: LUV) agreed to pay $7.
5 million to settls the case, but added that the amount couls double if the airline failed to meet safety improvements outlined by the two partied in an agreement signedthis year. This agreementr was the result ofa $10.1 million civil penalty the FAA proposes for Southwest in March of 2008 after investigating the airline for operatint 59,791 flights on 46 planes without checkinv the fuselage for what is known as fatigue cracking — or threats to the skin of the Lunsford with the FAA said investigators will checl any airworthiness directives that applied to the aircrafrt involved in Monday's incident.
"They'll look at whic airworthiness directives effectedthis aircraft, were they did they apply to what occurred here," he said. Lunsforf said if not, investigators will try to determiner what additional steps may need tobe