Date: April 28th,1988
Type: B737-297
Registration: N73711
Operator: Aloha Airlines
Where: Hawaii Islands
Report No.: NTSB-AAR-90-05
Report Date: -
Pages: -

At 13.25h Flight 243 took off from Hilo for a flight to Honolulu and climbed to FL240. When the aircraft levelled off approx. 18ft from the cabin skin and structure aft of the cabin entrance door separated from the aircraft. One cabin attendant was sucked out in the decompression. Both cockpit crewmembers immediately initiated an emergency descent of 4100ft/min. An emergency landing was made at Maui Airport Runway 02, at 13.58h with a speed of approx. 40kts above the normal landing speed. PROBABLE CAUSE: "The failure of the Aloha Airlines maintenance program to detect the presence of significant disbonding and fatigue damage, which ultimately led to failure of the lap joint at S-10L and the separation of the fuselage upper lobe. Contributing to the accident were the failure of Aloha Airlines management to supervise properly its maintenance force as well as the failure of the FAA to evaluate properly the Aloha Airlines maintenance program and to assess the airline's inspection and quality control deficiencies. Also contributing to the accident were the failure of the FAA to require Airworthiness Directive 87-21-08 inspection of all the lap joints proposed by Boeing Alert Service Bulletin SB 737-53A1039 and the lack of a complete terminating action (neither generated by Boeing nor required by the FAA) after the discovery of early production difficulties in the 737 cold bond lap joint, which resulted in low bond durability, corrosion and premature fatigue cracking." (NTSB-AAR-90-05)