Back in August, the AirSafe News had a story about a Jat Airways 737 flying with numerous loose screws. One of this site's readers claims to have been an eyewitness to another loose screw event, this time involving a Continental Airlines 737. The first photo shows the right engine and strut, and in the second closeup picture, one screw appears to be completely missing and another appears to be loose. The witness, who goes by the name conscious_consumer, in the blog about this event, describes being on Continental Airlines Flight 350 (Newark, NJ to Austin, TX) and seeing loose and missing screws on part of the engine strut. While no date was given in the blog, the two photos have a date stamp of 28 September 2009.
Seeing something like this may make any passenger uncomfortable, as the following description of the event from conscious_consumer shows:
I was aboard Continental flight 350 EWR – AUS @ 7:15AM EST) and looked out of my window and realized that something about the mounting (I am sure it’s not the proper technical term but I hope I’ll get my point across using it) of the engine caught my eye. It looked like one of the screws was not all the way in, creating an odd looking shadow – which was catching my attention. When I took a closer glance, I noticed that, right below the odd looking screw, an entire screw appeared to be missing.
Key Questions
Given the potential seriousness of these loose and missing screws, the kinds of questions posed by the AirSafe.com News in its earlier story about Jat Airways should be asked again:
- Were the flight crew or maintenance crew aware of the loose and missing screws before the flight?
- Did the maintenance and flight crews follow procedures with respect to the missing and loose screws?
- Are the airline's procedures consistent with Boeing's recommended procedures for this model of the 737?
- Are the airline's procedures consistent with FAA regulations?
- How many flights did this aircraft make before the condition was corrected?
- Are missing screws a common occurrence with aircraft in the Continental fleet?
Comments and Feedback
The AirSafe.com News would like to ask its readers for feedback, especially from pilots, maintenance technicians, and airline safety professionals, about this particular event. Any information or evidence that would confirm that this event occurred would be especially welcome. Feel free to leave comments on this site, or to contact AirSafe.com at feedback.airsafe.org.
You can also file an official report with the following organizations:
FAA Aviation Safety Hotline - You can call the 24-hour hotline at 800.255.1111 or fill out the online form at http://www.faa.gov/contact/safety_hotline/ for issues related to improper maintenance activities, aircraft incidents, bogus parts, and violations of FAA regulations.
NASA Confidential Reports - Pilots, cabin crew, maintenance crew, and other aviation professions with direct knowledge of this issue can confidentially send a report to NASA's Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS).
