A different slant on the 1988 Aloha Airlines B-737 fatigue cracking occurance. This is an interesting detective story. It’s about a mystery that aviation professionals say was solved 12 years ago and the persistence of Austin, a former Hawai‘i boiler inspector, who has spent all those years and $45,000 of his money trying to prove that the experts got it wrong.

It’s also about an accident that forever changed maintenance practices for old planes and about an alternative theory that could have far-reaching consequences. Finally, it’s about the intriguing possible parallels between boiler safety and airplane safety......

- the story: http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/118localnews1.html

- some drawings on what happened: http://a1792.g.akamai.net/7/1792/1240/1b97c850a3634d/the.hono luluadvertiser.com/2001/Jan/18/image2/mattaustin.jpg

- the credentials: http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/118localnews17.html

- more disaster stuff: http://www.disastercity.com/

MisterNice

[This message has been edited by MisterNice (edited 01-18-2001).]