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| Date: | Monday 26 December 1988 |
| Time: | 08:45 |
| Type: |  Boeing 727-25 |
| Owner/operator: | Eastern Air Lines |
| Registration: | N8148N |
| MSN: | 18972/242 |
| Year of manufacture: | 1966 |
| Engine model: | P&W JT8D-7B |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 110 |
| Other fatalities: | 0 |
| Aircraft damage: | Minor |
| Category: | Incident |
| Location: | Morgantown, WV -
 United States of America
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Passenger - Scheduled |
| Departure airport: | Rochester-Monroe County Airport, NY (ROC) |
| Atlanta-William B. Hartsfield International Airport, GA (ATL) | |
| Investigating agency: | NTSB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
While cruising at FL310, the fuselage skin 'flapped' open between body stations 1090 and 1110 and peeled downward from stringer #4 left to stringer #5 left. A hole in the fuselage of 36cm caused a cabin decompression. The aircraft descended to FL100 and a safe emergency landing at Charleston was carried out. Investigation learne that a scratch or scribe mark was co-located with the longitudinal crack along stringer #4. The area of damage was located on the aft upper side, forward of the inlet for the #2 engine. the crack had initiated at multiple origins along the score mark and had grown by fatigue through the thickness of the material. A striation count found that between 3360 and 5040 cycles of fatigue progression were present. The scratch/score was made by use of marking tools during a repair process.
PROBABLE CAUSE: "maintenance,major repair..improper..company maintenance personnel"
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
NTSB
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 26-Jul-2012 07:20 | harro | Added |
| 21-Dec-2016 19:28 | ASN Update Bot | Updated [Time, Damage, Category, Investigating agency, ] |
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