Southwest Takes 80 Planes Out Of Service

[Mixie]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42386320/ns/us_news/


I'm supposed to fly out Monday.




I feel sick.

 

[msmayor]

I applaud Southwest for taking the steps necessary to make sure the fleet is safe.

Yes, its going to inconvenience a fair number of passengers...but far better to be left stuck on the ground for extra time than in the air and have a problem develop with the structure of the plane.

 

[mickeyluv]

We don't fly that often and maybe this is a stupid question but how do you know if the flight you're booked on is a Boeing 737-300 plane? Are all SW planes Boeing's 737-300? We're flying this coming Friday to MCO and this has gotten me understandably a little nervous.

 

[jdb in AZ]

The 737 is the work hourse of the Southwest fleet. They will have all their planes inspected in the next day or two, so if there are any problems they "should" be discovered before Friday. So you should be safer than if you had flown yesterday.

 

[pinkle]

wow....that gives me shivers. I just flew southwest a few weeks ago to Vegas, and have another upcoming trip planned. We should be thankful it was handled well, and hopefully the can prevent any future problems

 

[DebbieB]

We don't fly that often and maybe this is a stupid question but how do you know if the flight you're booked on is a Boeing 737-300 plane? Are all SW planes Boeing's 737-300? We're flying this coming Friday to MCO and this has gotten me understandably a little nervous.

I believe their oldest planes are -300 but they have newer ones, see this chart:

http://www.southwest.com/html/about-southwest/history/fact-sheet-fleet-popup.html

 

[mickeyluv]

The 737 is the work hourse of the Southwest fleet. They will have all their planes inspected in the next day or two, so if there are any problems they "should" be discovered before Friday. So you should be safer than if you had flown yesterday.

That's good to know! Thanks!

I believe their oldest planes are -300 but they have newer ones, see this chart:

http://www.southwest.com/html/about-southwest/history/fact-sheet-fleet-popup.html

Thanks for the chart. Maybe I just won't try to find out if the plane we're on is a 300 plane or not...might make me paranoid!

 

[DebbieB]

Thanks for the chart. Maybe I just won't try to find out if the plane we're on is a 300 plane or not...might make me paranoid!

Just keep thinking, they were able to land safely, no one was seriously hurt. Pilots are trained for this.

 

[can]

We flew home yesterday from MCO to MDW. One daughter was flying back to San Diego via a stop in Nashville. While at Epcot early Sat. morning, just happened to check our flight status and saw that her's was delayed leaving MCO by 1 1/2 hr., which would mean she would miss her connecting flight in BNA to SAN (and that was the only connecting flight to SAN). Packed up and headed for the airport early, tried calling via cell phone only to be told there was anywhere from a 47 min. to 1 hr 12 min. wait on the phone. Ugh.

Once at the airport was directed to a Full Service line, where while it was long, kept moving. Had a great agent, Jen, who promptly started to see what could be done for my daughter as I didn't want her spending the night alone in any city/airport. It wasn't looking good as things were pretty well booked and then Jen saw that almost 95% plus of the passenger list flying to BNA was going on to SAN. She thought the flight would be held and called the corporate SWA to confirm. They did tell her the flight would be held for these passengers connecting and she mentioned to them it didn't state that on SWA's computer info. By the time she hung-up, the flight status had been changed to Hold and we were reassured my daughter would make her flight.

Daughter did make it back to San Diego last night, arriving probably 40 min. later than originally scheduled, but got there safe and sound.

Cannot imagine the chaos SWA was dealing with when it came to re-booking disgruntled passengers and getting things caught up, but can understand why they did what they did.

Am very glad for the flight that had the problems that as scary it may have been for each and everyone of them, they landed safely and with little or no injuries to all those aboard!