Metal Fatigue Evidence Found on Aloha Jetliner

Evidence of metal fatigue has been found on the Aloha Airlines jetliner that managed to land here after a large chunk of the upper fuselage ripped away, federal officials say.

National Transportation Safety Board member Joseph T. Nall told reporters Sunday night that investigators “have found some cracking, some fatigue cracking” in rivet holes on a part of the fuselage that remained intact when the Boeing 737 suffered explosive decompression during a flight on Thursday afternoon.

Nall cited records indicating other small cracks were found--and repaired--last fall when the plane was inspected in compliance with a directive by the Federal Aviation Administration.

The cause of the explosive decompression that peeled back and tore off the upper two-thirds of an 18-foot section of the fuselage has yet to be pinned down officially, but the NTSB has said from the outset that it is focusing on metal fatigue.

The jetliner had put in more than 35,000 hours of flight time during its 19 years with Aloha, logging a total of almost 90,000 takeoffs on the airline’s short inter-island routes.

Each of those takeoffs involved pressurization of the plane that put a strain on its hull, much as inflation puts a strain on the skin of a balloon.

Nall said that because of the cracks found around the rivets on Sunday, other aging Boeing 737s in the Aloha fleet will be examined meticulously to see if they have suffered similar damage.

In Honolulu, hundreds of Aloha Airlines employees bearing traditional Hawaiian leis gathered in an airplane hangar Monday to mourn the flight attendant killed when Flight 243 tore apart on its way from the island of Hawaii to Oahu.

Reporters were not allowed to attend the memorial service for Clarabelle Lansing, 57, who was blown out of the jetliner when the fuselage ripped open.

Lansing, a 37-year veteran of Aloha, was the only fatality. No remains have been found.

Staff writer Tamara Jones contributed to this story.