passengers say it sounded like an explosion and sent the plane into a nosedive. i was texting my sister to make certain that she told my kids that i loved them. it was in back of me to the left. and i did hear it. it sounded like a shot and a lot of air decompressing. it was quick and it was scary. since then the airline has found cracks in three more planes. so how did those cracks go unnoticed? last hour i spoke with mary schiavo, a former inspector general of the u.s. department of transportation. here s what she had to say about the accident. two things occurred. one is they allowed visual inspection. some of these cracks are very difficult to see, and you have to use ultrasonic or sometimes even magnetic resonance. you really have to treat the plane as if it s a body and you re looking for problems. and so the visual inspections cannot find all of these cracks. and the second thing that occurred after that was
a flight attendant was slightly injured. the plane bound for sacramento made an emergency landing in yuma, arizona. it sounded like an explosion at least. all of a sudden there s a big sunroof in the middle of the plane. big old hole. you can see daylight coming through it. all of a sudden the oxygen masks dropped. everyone was just trying to get the maskses on. it was scary. it sounded like a shot and a lot of air decompressing and it was quick and it was scary. since then, southwest has grounded the 737s and canceled flights. just last hour i asked cnn s jeanne meserve about the inspections. southwest is inspecting 79 boeing 737 300s in its fleet. so far, small subsurface cracks have been detected in three additional aircraft. 19 have been returned to service. boeing is drafting a voluntary
right now, terrifying moments for the passengers and crew on a southwest airlines flight. a three to four-foot hole opened in the boeing 737 s roof after takeoff from phoenix. the pilot was able to make an emergency landing at a military base in yuma, arizona. when the hole opened, some of the passengers panicked. i was texting my sister to make certain that she told my kids that i love them. in back of me to the left. and i did hear it. it sounded like a shot and a lot of air decompressing and it was quick, and it was scary. super scary stuff. fortunately, no one was hurt. greg feith is with us on the phone from denver. a crack in the fuselage is terrifying, a complete peelback of the material. so how in the world can something like this happen? well, when you look at an
landing in yuma, arizona, yesterday. this was a southwest airlines flight headed to sacramento. take a look at what we re talking about. these are some of the pictures from inside. there was about a 4-foot long gash in that plane. there it is. that s the best picture we have of it there. this caused the plane, the cabin to de-pressurized. you can see the masks start falling down. the ntsb investigating, trying to figure out what happened here. i was texting my sister to make certain she told my kids i love them. it was in back of me to the left, and i did hear it. it sounded like a shot and a lot of air decompressing. it was quick and it was scary. now, passengers, most of them, i think 118 on that flight. the passengers, crew, no serious injuries to report or anything. no one had to go to the hospital. passengers were put on other planes, allowed to continue on
however, you can imagine how terrifying it must have been for the folk s on board the plane. i was texting my sister to make sure she told my kids i loved them. it was in back of me to the left. i did hear it. it sounded like a shot and a lot of air decompressing. it was quick and scary. reporter: now, southwest has dealt with this before. a football-sized hole basically opened up on a flight back in 2009 in charleston, west virginia. the cause of that, it turned out, was metal fatigue. the exterior of the plane, the metal was compromised. in that case, there were no injuries. in this case, there were no injuries. southwest has pulled 79 of the flights off the table today and they are testing them and looking at them and looking at the skin. these were aircraft that were due for maintenance check. they are doing that now.