FAA to order inspection of 100 Boeing 737s

The Federal Aviation Administration Tuesday will issue an emergency directive requiring inspections of nearly 100 older-model Boeing 737s around the world, in response to a frightening incident in which a 5-foot hole was torn in the roof of a Southwest Airlines jet, the agency said.

The aircraft affected by the directive include only one or two in the United States not already grounded, the FAA said.

The mandated safety checks come in addition to inspections of 79 planes -- all of them 737s in the 300 series -- that Southwest voluntarily grounded Saturday to look for fuselage cracks. By Monday afternoon, the airline said it had inspected 67 of those aircraft and identified subsurface cracks on three planes that will remain out of service until they are repaired.

The Southwest inspections, which caused major service disruptions over the weekend and scattered delays Monday at Long Island MacArthur and LaGuardia airports, were expected to be completed by Tuesday, she said.

The FAA directive calls for inspections of 300, 400, and 500 series 737s that have taken off and landed more than 30,000 times.

The agency Monday had identified 175 of those aircraft around the world, including 80 in the United States -- 78 already grounded by Southwest and two others believed to be operated by Alaska Airlines.

Friday, a Southwest 737-300 was heading from Phoenix to Sacramento when it made an emergency landing in Yuma, Ariz., after a hole opened in the 15-year-old plane's fuselage. A passenger and a flight attendant passed out from lack of oxygen; no one was seriously hurt.

Southwest operates nearly all flights at MacArthur, which also is served by US Airways Express. Most of the Southwest planes arriving at MacArthur are 737-700s, airport spokeswoman Catherine Green said.

On Saturday, Green said those planes no longer fly to the Ronkonkoma airport. Monday, she said Southwest does fly a few 737-300s each day to MacArthur. She said Southwest earlier had provided inaccurate information.

Southwest's inspections came into question three years ago, when the airline agreed to pay a $7.5-million federal fine for failing to perform mandatory checks for fuselage cracks.

Most of the planes in question were 737-300s. At the time, Southwest told Newsday it did not fly that type of plane to MacArthur. Records obtained by Newsday showed that it did.