remember watching a t.v. programme about the aloha 737, nearly all pax and crew had a very lucky escape, didnt it have some thing to do with it operating in a salty climate that caused metal fatigue?
The Aloha incident led the FAA and other regulatory agencies to require all OEM's to establish a fatigue life for each of their models. However, once the fatigue life is reached it does not mean that the aircraft must removed from service. What it means is that a series of modifications/inspections must be incorporated. Once these modifications/inspections have been accomplished the aircraft can then continue to be operated, until another established threshold is reached, where addtional modifications/inspections will be rquired. This could go on and on as long as the operator is willing pay for this addtional maintenance.