Maint. damaged Boeing aircraft investigated

[farqueue]

The Boeing procedure call for using a softish plastic probe to clean out the joint. The painters use fu***ing SCRIBERS!! to do it, and whoa ho, they left scribed scores in the skin under the straps.

Can you spell Fatigue? Can you spot a stress riser?

This is the sort of thing you bawl out a jr for, or thats how it used to be.

[bbbaldy]

There is a Ryanair 73-200 sitting in an FLS Dublin hangar for 1 1/2 years due to this problem. It was in for a heavy C check which included a Lap joint inspection. The procedure fir this lap joint inspection was to cut out the lap joint,s and put in a very big repair. this was easier and more cost effective than lots of medium to small repairs. This did not include the lap joints over the wings. When the lap joints over the wings were inspected they discovered damage to the skin due to knives being used to remove sealant. They then decided to inspect the butt joins for simular damage and found the same. At this stage it was decided that the A/C was not worth repairing. I looked at these knife marks on the skin myself and they were deep. This was the first Ryan Air A/C found with this damage and opened this particular can of worms. Some of the other Ryanair 73-200's were inspected in the same facility and were found to be ok, some knife marks but repairable. You can see on the Ryanair 200's which A/C have had this lap joint Inspection/repair done to them, by looking at the lap joints over and below the window belts forward and aft of the wings there is a huge repair running the legnth of where the lap joint was.

[Bullet Remington]

No need for eveybody to get their knickers in a knot over this one. At this juncture, all machines affected by this SB and AWD have been inspected and where required repaired and/or hauled off to the beer can factory.

For those having access to the manufacturers fleet page, the applicable SB was issued 14 March 2002 and applied to everything from the 07s, right up to the MD 90s. Time to complete the SB depended upon TCSN of the machine. These ran from 30 days to 100 flts up to 90 dyas, 300 flights.

Since the SB was mandated by "incorporation of reference" all civil authorities issued the FAA AWD and mandated these actions. So, in essentially, all aircraft still poking holes in the sky, are done.

Basically, the inspection stated that a DVI,(detailed Visual Inspection) was to be done all lap Joints, and anything noted would require LFEC or MFEC Inspection ( Low Freq or Medium Freq Eddy Current).

While this SB was kind of a surrise, the manufacturer has previously called out numerous SBs on this particular area of the aircraft. Generall, the AME's check these areas on every turnaround, B check, A Check as well as indepth inspections every C Check.

So every body relax, get back out there, get them turnin and burnin and go back to making money!!

Stay safe y'all, and ask lots of questions!!