DALLAS — For air traffic controllers, the first sign something was wrong with Southwest Airlines Flight 812 came in a garbled radio communication obtained by News 8.
Controller: "Southwest 812, I'm sorry I could not understand. Please say again."
Pilot: "Request emergency descent. We've lost the cabin [pressure]. We're starting down."
Flight 812 left Phoenix for Sacramento on the evening of April 1. But after reaching cruising altitude of 34,000 feet, passengers said they heard several loud noises when a hole ripped open in the fuselage, depressurizing the plane.
Oxygen masks tumbled down from the overhead compartments and the pilot put the plane in a rapid descent.
1st Controller: "Southwest 812 is emergency decompression descent. He'd like 10,000 feet. Can you approve that? He's doing it anyway."
2nd Controller: "Yes. Yes, approved."
The emergency is captured in more than 100 minutes of air traffic control recordings that were reviewed by News 8.
Pilot: "We're probably going to turn around and go back to Phoenix."
Controller: "Southwest 812, you're clear to the Phoenix airport via right turn."
Pilot: "Southwest 812. We'll return to Phoenix and currently we got a hole in the fuselage in the back of the airplane."
But minutes later, the pilot radioed back to air traffic controllers saying he needed to land immediately.
Pilot: "We need the nearest airport."
Controller: "Southwest 812, are you able to land at Blythe or do you want to go to Palm Springs?"
Pilot: "Let's make a turn and go to uh, how far is Yuma away from us right now?"
Controller: "Yuma is in your three o'clock position. And 50 miles."
Pilot: "We'll take Yuma."
National Transportation Safety Board investigators discovered a tear in the fuselage almost five feet long, and blamed metal fatigue.
"At the NTSB Materials Laboratory, microscope examination of the fracture faces of the ruptured skin revealed fatigue cracks emanating from at least 42 of the 58 rivet holes connected by the fracture," the NTSB said in a preliminary finding on April 25.
Within days, the FAA ordered inspections for stress cracks on dozens of similar planes.
Federal investigators released that 15-year-old 737-300 jetliner back to Southwest in April. But almost three months later, the airline told News 8 that it still has not put the plane back in the air.
The 118 passengers on Flight 812 were not seriously injured. At the time, many praised the pilots and crew for professionalism and a safe landing.
The NTSB told News 8 it likely would not have a final report on the incident — which details the cause, contributing factors, and ways to prevent it from happening again — until next year.
E-mail jwhitely@wfaa.com
