Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 Max sustains 'substantial' damage from 'Dutch roll' incident
Source: USA Today via Yahoo!
Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 Max sustains 'substantial' damage from 'Dutch roll' incident
Zach Wichter
Updated Fri, June 14, 2024 at 3:27 PM EDT
3 min read
A Southwest Airlines jet was damaged during a flight last month after it experienced an unusual maneuver called a Dutch roll.
Flight 746 was en route from Phoenix to Oakland on May 25 and flying at about 34,000 feet when the incident occurred.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, the plane sustained substantial damage to its tail section as a result of the maneuver, although it was able to complete the flight. The damage was only discovered during a post-flight inspection. The rudders standby power control unit (PCU) was damaged. The standby PCU is a backup system in case the main rudder power unit becomes inoperable. No injuries were reported as a result of the maneuver.
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What is a Dutch roll?
A Dutch roll is an airplane maneuver that involves simultaneous yaw (side-to-side motion across a flat horizontal plane) and roll (see-saw motion over a horizontal plane).
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Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/southwest-airlines-boeing-737-max-154528552.html
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Oopsie Daisy
(3,103 posts)ArkansasDemocrat1
(1,557 posts)It is concerning that this happened. They'd solved the dutch roll problem back in the 50s
[link:https://www.boldmethod.com/learn-to-fly/aerodynamics/dutch-roll/|
Igel
(35,557 posts)These are rare. Wiki has a list, and they're random in occurrence.
Oddball set of wind patterns? Controller off line for some reason? Pilots not realizing what's happening as it starts to happen?
Were it a design flaw, you'd expect these to be more common for a given make/model of plane.
(I'm learning some fluid dynamics now and might just use this as an example come next school year.)
ArkansasDemocrat1
(1,557 posts)I wouldn't put anything past pre-bankruptcy Boeing
paleotn
(18,201 posts)They're not designed for "aerobatics."
canetoad
(17,324 posts)A Dutch roll. I'm familiar with the terms yaw and roll - but on boats. This looks distinctly uncomfortable.
Edit for blocks Youtube url.
JustABozoOnThisBus
(23,481 posts)To me, this sounds like a simple fix: Pull the standby power control unit, slide in a new one, hook up the wire connectors. Easy-peasey.
It does seem ridiculous that the cockpit voice data recorder over-writes the medium after two hours. Get a bigger storage drive, guys, they're cheap at Best Buy.
Yes, my knowledge of aircraft maintenance is limited to "righty-tighty, lefty-loosey".
Wonder Why
(3,675 posts)Dutch Roll (def: ) - An airplane maneuver where each pilot has to pay their own cost for the damage.
kimbutgar
(21,553 posts)Dutch roll that made me nervous but then went smooth. Flying back home today on the same plane hope its a smooth flight!
IronLionZion
(45,907 posts)![](/emoticons/sarcasm.gif)