Says Tear "Consistent" With Damage Caused By Foreign Object

Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board are looking closely at the possibility baggage handlers at Syracuse Hancock International Airport accidentally caused a 12-inch gash in the side of a DC-9 earlier this month, that later forced the plane to make an emergency landing in Buffalo, NY.

As ANN reported, the Detroit-bound flight with 95 persons onboard landed safely at BUF on May 18, due to the loss of cabin pressure and a smoke-filled cockpit after the plane climbed through 19,000 feet. No one was injured in the incident.

In its preliminary report issued this week, the NTSB does not point a finger of blame... but its presentation of the facts of the incident certainly hints at errors by the ground crew.

"The postflight inspection revealed a 12-inch by 5-inch fuselage skin tear, approximately 6 feet forward of the forward cargo door," the report states. "Further inspection revealed that a crease in the skin of the fuselage existed forward of the tear, consistent with the skin being damaged by a foreign object."

The NTSB adds Northwest conducted its own investigation, and arrived at that conclusion as well. "According to Northwest Airlines personnel, the height of the damage on the airplane was approximately the same height as the top of the cab of a baggage cart tug used by contract personnel to load passenger luggage onto the airplane," said the safety board.

If all of this sounds like it's happened before, it's because it has. Last year, an Alaska Airlines MD-80 experienced a similar loss of cabin pressure while climbing through 26,000 feet on a flight from Seattle to Los Angeles.

Like the Northwest crew, those pilots secured their plane, and made haste down to breathable altitudes. The plane then returned to SeaTac, where investigators discovered a six-inch hole in the area where the skin had been creased by a luggage cart driven by a contract worker for Menzies Aviation.

According to the NTSB, the DC-9 in question -- built in 1969 -- had come out of its annual airworthiness inspection the day before the incident. The plane had 83,091 hours on the airframe.

FMI: www.nwa.com, www.ntsb.gov