The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating an in-flight fuselage rupture that occurred on a Southwest Airline Boeing 737 aircraft.
Preliminary reports indicate the aircraft lost pressure and oxygen masks were deployed. The damaged airplane diverted and landed safely in Yuma, Ariz.
Southwest also said it is keeping “a subset” of its Boeing 737 fleet out of the flying schedule “to begin an aggressive inspection effort in cooperation with Boeing engineers.”
“The safety of our Customers and Employees is our primary concern, and we are grateful there were no serious injuries,” Mike Van de Ven, Southwest’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, said in a news release. “We have launched personnel to Yuma to begin the investigation process with the NTSB, FAA, and appropriate parties to determine the cause of the depressurization.”
There were 118 passengers on Southwest flight 812 at the time of the incident.
