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Investigators claim that when a Southwest Airlines aircraft experienced a "Dutch roll" during a trip last month, certain structural elements of the aircraft were damaged.
U.S. authorities revealed on Friday that a Boeing 737 Max experienced structural damage after aircraft experienced a "Dutch roll" during a Southwest Airlines flight last month.
The incident occurred on May 25 as the aircraft was cruising at 34,000 feet from Phoenix to Oakland, California. However, the National Transportation Safety Board found that Southwest failed to report the roll or damage to the plane until June 7.
The safety board stated that "SWA performed maintenance on the aeroplane following the event and discovered damage to structural components."
Aviation experts stated that it was too soon to determine for sure, but the NTSB's statement might imply that the incident was more serious than originally believed.
According to a representative for the Dallas-based airline, Southwest is taking part in the inquiry. He said he would not speak further.
A Dutch roll is a combination of the plane shaking in a way that causes the wings to roll up and down and yaw, or the tail sliding side to side. The swaying, rhythmic action is named after a type of ice skating that was common in the Netherlands.
John Cox, an aviation safety expert and former airline pilot, remarked, "It's just a part of aerodynamics." "You feel like the aeroplane kind of wallows in the back."
Dutch rolls are something that pilots practise recovering from, and most contemporary aircraft have a yaw damper that can rectify the situation by modifying the rudder. According to an FAA preliminary report, damage was found to a mechanism that regulates the rudder's backup power after the Southwest Airlines aircraft touched down.
It was stated that the damage was "substantial."
According to Cox, the structural damage most likely happened in the tail fin of the aircraft, which houses the power units. He couldn't understand why the backup unit would sustain damage as it wouldn't typically turn on during a Dutch roll.
According to Cox, 737s do not exhibit the dangerous two-way oscillation of a Dutch roll that was present in earlier Boeing aircraft due to design improvements.
Boeing "Excessive Dutch roll is not a common 737 problem. He stated, "The aeroplane is designed in a way that, in the absence of any intervention, it will naturally dampen the Dutch roll out. "It could progress to the point where you could lose control of the aeroplane in older models, such as 707s and 727s."
According to the NTSB, data from the Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft has been retrieved and will aid investigators in determining the duration and gravity of the event.
But the audio recorder in the cockpit was wiped after two hours, so investigators won't know exactly what the pilots were discussing.
After regaining control, the pilots made an Oakland landing. The flight, which included a six-person crew and 175 passengers, was reported to have had no injuries.
In roughly 30 days, the NTSB stated that it planned to release a preliminary report on the incident.
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