Cracks in safety

• Article
• Comments ()
• Click-2-Listen
• Videos

By

Windshields have cracked three times during Boeing 777 flights in the last year. All the airplanes landed safety and no one was hurt.

But experts say three similar incidents in one year is unusual for an aircraft. The 777, Boeing's newest, largest twin-engine jet, is among the most modern in the commercial fleet.

Alitalia Flight 610 was over the Atlantic on a Rome-to-New York flight in July when the Boeing 777 seemed to shudder. Passengers smelled smoke.

The cabin crew ran up to the flight deck as passengers screamed, said Bruce Northrup, a New York City banker returning from a wedding with his wife and 15-year-old son. "People were yelling, 'Tell us what's going on,'" he said.

The twin-engine jet made a U-turn and began descending gradually. The pilot told the 300 or so frightened passengers they had a "serious technical problem" and were headed to Shannon, Ireland, a half-hour away. He also told them to calm down.

They were quiet, but not calm, for what turned into a very long 90 minutes, Mr. Northrup said. After a safe emergency landing, passengers saw what had caused the problem: a windshield covered with cracks.

"That window looked like something out of an automobile junkyard," Mr. Northrup said.

Boeing officials traced the problem to faulty wiring in a window heater.

Boeing's 777 entered service in 1995, carries up to 550 persons and costs between $153 million and $231 million each, depending on the model. There are 138 registered in the United States, according to Federal Aviation Administration records.