The Nation - News from July 14, 1988

A team investigating why an 18-foot section of an airplane ripped off in flight said Wednesday a number of discrepancies in Aloha Airlines’ records indicated problems with aircraft were noted but no record was made of corrections. Lonnie R. Giles, leader of a Federal Aviation Administration inspection team, said Aloha’s structural inspection program and its compliance with FAA airworthiness directives were reviewed in a special inspection in May. The review followed the April 28th incident in which a portion of the fuselage on a Boeing 737 peeled off on a flight from Hilo to Honolulu, exposing the first-class section to the open air at 24,000 feet and killing a flight attendant.