Originally Posted by
oliver2002
Thank god nothing major happened. What causes the fuselage to rupture? The DC-9-30 must have some serious number of cycles behind them but surely are checked against hairline cracks?
A couple ideas:
1. It could have sustained accidental damage while on the ground, but minor enough that it wasn't noticed or something, or
2. Plain old metal fatigue, with the "minor" (compared to AQ243) results being due to inspections being done much more carefully by everyone post-AQ243.