Another 777 panel lost inbound to Narita

[underfire]

American Airlines B772 loses panel into Narita.

"An American Airlines Boeing 777-200, registration N755AN performing flight AA-61 (dep Aug 15th) from Dallas Ft. Worth,TX (USA) to Tokyo Narita (Japan), completed a seemingly uneventful flight with a safe landing on Narita's runway 16L.
A post flight inspection revealed a glass fiber panel, size about one square meter (10 square feet) weighing about 2kg/4 lbs, was missing from the fuselage just aft of the trailing edge of the right hand wing."
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.gmforum.com-vbulletin/750x1129/american_b772_n775an_tokyo_180816_1_38a1441628ece00d65c8765c a32fdcf36166dad2.jpg

[JammedStab]

If I remember correctly, the Japanese authorities have stated in a memo of the requirement for airlines to make a report if something has fallen from the airplane.

I’m sure this will be done. Heightened sensitivities to new routes over the city in advance of the Olympics to accommodate more air traffic have residents concerned. Maybe for good reason.

[etudiant]

Looks as though the panel imploded, which suggests it had a blocked outflow valve and got pushed in when external air pressure rose on descent.

[yotty]

I see what you are saying etudiant but the void beneath the panel is not pressurised.

[BAengineer]

Long time known problem - the support brackets are a poor design and vibration works the fasteners loose.

[llondel]

Perhaps someone needs to go check all similarly-configured 777s with enough flight time to see if it's some form of metal fatigue due to the airflow past that region causing pressure fluctuations and oscillation of the panel.

I assume the thrust reversers don't cause a pressure wave around there? That could cause it to go pop on deceleration. Some poor sod will probably have to sit and listen to the CVR and see if they can hear when it happened.

[golfyankeesierra]

Long time known problem - the support brackets are a poor design and vibration works the fasteners loose.
and I understanding the biggest problem (apart from the chance of someone getting smashed by a panel) is the aircraft being grounded for several days because this panel isn,t really an off the shelve item for maintenance..

[lomapaseo]

and I understanding the biggest problem (apart from the chance of someone getting smashed by a panel) is the aircraft being grounded for several days because this panel isn,t really an off the shelve item for maintenance..


If enough drop off over Japan, they will be off-the-aircraft and on-the-shelf to pick from.

[NWA SLF]

This wasn't the same panel as the previous 777 in Japan. That proved to be a panel reattached with the wrong hardware making it a high probability of failure. If there are multiple losses of this particular panel can somebody please post the pics? A 4 pound panel falling to the ground is aerodynamically likely to flutter down, not slice like a projectile. Yes, it is not a good thing to lose a panel from a plane type in service over 30 years with millions of cycles but in the overall scheme of things, a turbine disk crashing into an Iowa corn field is news. This???