HJ1AN wrote:Unfortunate for the passengers on Flight 331, but they are very lucky to survive without major injuries indeed.
Actually four of the people on the 738 that operated AA 331 had severe injuries, but the other 83 were lucky enough to escape the aircraft without any major injuries. And yeah, I agree, it's a write-off for sure.
Anyway, here's another 737 incident, the first Southwest incident to involve a fatality (although it wasn't a passenger fatality, it was a ground one): Southwest Airlines Flight 1248 (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Airlines_Flight_1248).
It overran a snowy runway in Chicago due to late deployment of the thrust reversers and the nose landing gear failing and hit traffic in the conveniently placed street right next to it, causing traffic issues and killing a six-year-old boy. The aircraft looked like this shortly after:
The damages to the 737 (original registration: N471WN), which was first delivered to Southwest in 2004, were reversed and the aircraft was re-registered as N286WN in 2006. It was the first major accident in Southwest's 38-year history (soon 39-year) to involve a fatality and the first one since Southwest 1255 (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Airlines_Flight_1455), which did not have any fatalities, but it almost hit a conveniently placed gas station near the runway it attempted to land on. Although there were no deaths involved in Flight 1255, the 733 was damaged beyond repair and was subsequently written off, the first time Southwest wrote off an aircraft. The gas station that nearly caused Flight 1255 to become a total disaster was torn down soon after the aircraft was sent off to a scrapyard due to safety concerns. (The safety concerns went for the gas station, not the aircraft; remember, the aircraft was damaged beyond repair and had to be written off.)
Whew, two accident reports in one post... My condolences to Joshua Woods (the boy who died as a result of Southwest 1248).