Thanks ozaub for the informative post. At first, I thought it excessive to demand inspections be carried out on all 737NGs regardless of flight cycles. However, with the latest developments of cracking apparently having been found in other locations than the inspection areas of the AD-mandates MOM, in conjunction with findings on aircraft below 22k flight cycles, I am becoming increasingly doubtful of Boeing’s approach. The multitude of existing issues in the area of Body Station 663 on all 737 minor models up to and including the NG does not exactly dispel my doubts. It is a very busy area in terms of loads going through the airframe, so one would hope that Boeing are being sufficiently conservative in their analysis. I believe it is safe to say that if an NG should ever suffer an accident due to failure of the joints in question, that would spell the end for Boeing (and the FAA as we know it). Hopefully that will never happen, but as engineers we shouldn’t have to summon hope.