After a hole opened on top of the aircraft Friday in Arizona, Southwest Airlines cancelled about 600 flights on Saturday and Sunday to continue the inspection of 79 of its Boeing 737 planes.
The Star Tribune quoted the Associated Press saying Southwest Airlines has about 3,400 flights each day. Therefore, it was about 9 percent decrease of the total number of flights on each of the two days.
CNN reported that the flight which took off from Phoenix bound for Sacramento, California, made an emergency landing in Yuma, Arizona after the hole was discovered, and the hole that opened up was 5 feet long and 1 foot wide
A National Transportation Safety Board member Robert Sumwalt told CNN that the flight data recorder indicated the plane dropped from 36,000 feet to 11,000 feet within 4 1/2 minutes when it depressurized.
Sumwalt told CNN that the first inspection found that "clear evidence that the skin separated at the lower rivet line" where "the skin comes together on the aircraft. However, the inspections of the remaining planes will not be completed until late Tuesday.
Passengers were in shock by this incident. One passenger Debbie Downey told CNN that they were in row 16 and her husband and she could see blue sky and it was terrifying.
The company provide some compensation to the passengers in this incident. Dallas-based Southwest issued a release Saturday said that the passengers on board Flight 812 have received a full refund along with an apology and two complimentary round-trip passes on Southwest for future flights, according to the Star Tribune quoted the Associated Press.
