Age of Jets Is Concern to Experts

It happened a year ago this week. Aloha Airlines Flight 243 was flying at 400 m.p.h., 24,000 feet above Alenuihaha Channel between the Big Island of Hawaii and Maui, when an 18-foot section of the upper fuselage ripped off the plane. A flight attendant was sucked out to her death, and 61 of 89 passengers were injured.

Thirteen minutes later, when Aloha 243 landed at Maui’s Kahului Airport, the flight was front-page news. Not because the heroic pilots landed the stricken aircraft safely, but because the 737 involved was 19 years old.

Door Blows Out

The accident brought up the question of airplane age.

In February there was the case of United Flight 811. In this instance a cargo door apparently blew out of a 19-year-old 747 over the Pacific, resulting in the death of nine passengers.

And on April 12 a supersonic Concorde jet lost part of its rudder flying 40,000 feet over the Tasman Sea between New Zealand and Australia. The plane landed safely in Sydney.

Concorde jets are showing their age, and that is worrying some industry observers. The 100-passenger planes were first flown nearly 14 years ago.

The Tasman Sea incident is one of several recent accidents involving the aircraft. While there have been no fatal Concorde accidents, pressure windows have cracked in some Concordes, and problems with the landing gear with others. (In February, cracks were found in two French Concordes.)

Experts Seek Answers

The case of aging airplanes has moved to the top of the regulators’ agendas. In the United States the average age of airliners is nearing 13 years. The average age of the Singapore Airlines fleet is 4.5 years; Lufthansa is 7.7 years and Japan Air Lines is 9.1 years. Of 10 airlines around the world with the youngest fleets, only one--Delta--is a U.S. carrier.

More than half of the world’s air fleet is more than 10 years old, and 1,500 jets are approaching 20 years. Some are older.

“We’ve learned a lot since our accident,” Maury Myers, president and chief executive of Aloha, said. Myers has moved quickly to deal with his aging fleet.

For starters, the stricken aircraft was scrapped. Then Myers studied two other high-cycle 737s in the fleet and scrapped those, too.

Consumer Confidence

“It wasn’t an issue of those planes not being safe,” Myers said. “It was an issue of consumer confidence in our airline.”

“The accident forced us, and the rest of the industry, to look at our fleets. Most important, it made us focus on our older planes--that they need and will continue to need extra-special attention. And we don’t plan to get close to those aircraft ages again. A young fleet is good business, and also logical from a safety standpoint.”

Specifically, Myers and other airline chief executives are ordering their maintenance staffs to perform more intense fuselage inspections at more frequent intervals.

“Looking at a plane by how many cycles (takeoffs and landings) or hours is not the right way to determine its condition,” Myers said. “Good visual inspections are our first line of defense. And that is now followed by electronic inspections. It’s expensive, but I’m not arguing about the price of safety.”

Aloha has stripped the paint off critical areas of each plane. “We did find some cracks in lap joints,” Myers said. “So did many other carriers.”

Planes Replaced

Aloha replaced two of its three aging planes with newer 737s and has ordered more. Most important, Aloha has taken stronger control of its maintenance operations. “Rather than rely on Boeing,” Myers said, “we’ve started our own engineering department.”

What about other airlines?

Many have stripped paint from critical areas, and some--such as American and USAir--have had an easier time inspecting aircraft because they don’t paint their planes. Japan Air Lines has sold some of its older 747s.

Airlines today definitely need to address the issue of aging planes.

“When I came in, one of the first things I noticed was that we needed to order new planes,” Stephen Wolf, head of United, said.

United is flying 393 aircraft.

“At the end of 1978 we operated 355 planes,” Wolf said. “We’ve grown by only (a few dozen) aircraft. It’s not enough.” By contrast, in 1978, American Airlines operated 250 aircraft. Today it flies more than 430.

United needs to replace and/or retire some of its older planes. To do that it has ordered 110 737-300s, 15 747-400s and 30 Boeing 757s.

Soon United will be operating new long-range Boeing 747-400s in the Pacific, flying the Chicago-Seattle-Tokyo route and the New York City-to-Tokyo nonstop flights.

(United still flies the oldest 727 in the air. American’s oldest 727 still flying was delivered to the airline in 1964, a few months after United’s veteran.)

TWA, American and Midway have announced plans to order new-generation aircraft to replace older airplanes.

$1-Billion Repair Bill

But the problems may be more serious. It is estimated that the repair bill for keeping older U.S. jets flying may be near $1 billion.

The nation’s airlines are calling for a repair program that has identified as many as 200 needed repairs to 700 Boeing jets. Another 100 repairs are needed on about 500 airplanes built by McDonnell Douglas, including the DC-9, DC-8 and DC-10.

Who will pay for these repairs (estimated at $600,000 per airplane)? And if the FAA doesn’t insist on them immediately, when will they be performed?

What is particularly disturbing is that in 1987 the FAA ordered repairs made to the cargo doors of the Boeing 747 involved in the United Flight 811 accident.

But it took the FAA more than a year to issue the order--after a cargo door on another 747 had opened in flight. Then the federal agency gave airlines 18 months to make the necessary repairs, at a cost of just $3,247 per plane. The repair work had not been completed on Flight 811.

Losing the Race

There are those who think the high-flying (60,000 feet), high-speed (1,354 m.p.h.) Concordes may be losing a race against time, age and fatigue. All the original planes are still flying, and no new Concordes are being built.

“Considering the stresses we subject the Concordes to, we’re asking a lot from the plane,” said one pilot who asked not be identified.

What about some of the older first-generation jets? The fact is, 213 Boeing 707s of the original production of 729 are still in the sky.

“It is a testimony to how well they were built,” said one airline pilot, “that they’re still flying and doing a good job. But you can also say that about a well-maintained Packard.

“The problem,” he said, “is that if you own an old Packard, you know how tough it is to find a good mechanic or spare parts. That is beginning to happen with the old jets.

“Who is maintaining them? And how well? What kind of parts are they using?”

Perhaps the more important questions are: Where are these planes flying? And are you on them?

“One of the reasons these planes are still flying,” said an industry executive, “is that fuel prices have remained relatively stable. If fuel prices rise, the airlines will get rid of the older, less fuel-efficient planes faster. But that hasn’t happened yet.”