Brief History of the Accident Airplane & Related Events

Air Safety Week, June 30, 2003

July 15, 1979 Date of the Boeing B747-200 manufacture.

July 31, 1979 Delivered to China Airlines (CAL).

Feb. 7, 1980 Airplane suffers a tail strike on landing at Hong Kong. Aircraft ferried to main CAL repair center at Taipei.

Feb. 8, 1980 Temporary repair to damaged/scraped aft belly through installation of doublers (i.e., skin patches) over damaged area.

May 25, 1980 "Permanent" repair per structural repair manual (SRM) 53-30-03. No records (engineering guidance, maintenance instructions, etc.) available to document details of the repair. Boeing has no record of the permanent repair being accomplished. Burrs, nicks and scratches not removed per SRM 53-30-03. CAL claimed repair was deemed "minor" not "major." As a "minor" repair, CAL quality manual of July 1, 2002, said there was no requirement to report minor repairs to the manufacturer.

December 1993 Last D check (overhaul) and last stripping and painting (D checks are done every 25,000 flight hours).

May 25, 2000 19,447 flight cycles and 60,665 flight hours accumulated. Effective date of Repair Assessment Program (RAP) promulgated by U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. Complete repair examination before next D check to begin for aircraft with more than 15,000 cycles and less than 20,000 cycles. Examinations to be completed before 22,000 cycles.

May 22, 2001 CAL adopts Boeing-developed RAP program, which focused on the pressurized fuselage where damage tolerance of the original structure may be reduced by a repair.

May 25, 2001 20,402 flight cycles accumulated.

Aug. 28, 2001 Transient suppression devices installed on fuel quantity indication system (major alteration to prevent surge of power into center wing tank and possible explosion of type considered trigger for loss of TWA Flight 800 in 1996).

Nov. 2, 2001 Pursuant to intended repair assessment, CAL technicians complete mapping of all doubler repairs on accident aircraft during 6C check. Photos taken of 31 doubler repairs scattered throughout the accident aircraft.

May 3, 2002 Last maintenance check.

May 23, 2002 Last flight before accident flight. No discrepancies noted; aft cargo door, pressurization and other systems functioned normally. No wrinkles noted on fuselage skin.

May 25, 2002 Sudden structural failure leading to rapid decompression. At time of accident, airplane had accumulated flight 21,398 cycles (97 percent of 22,000-cycle limit).

Nov. 2, 2002 Accident airplane was scheduled for repair assessment during next scheduled 7C check.

Nov. 26, 2002 Boeing issues alert service bulletin (SB 747-53A2489) calling upon B747 operators to remove doublers installed to repair tail strike damage and to inspect underlying skin.

Feb. 5, 2003 FAA issues airworthiness directive (AD 2003-03-19) ordering a one-time high frequency eddy current (HFEC) inspection of lower fuselage skins on all B747-200 aircraft repaired as a result of tail strikes. Cracks and scratches to be repaired "before further flight." Report results of inspections within 30 days to FAA.

April 8, 2003 U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) criticizes scope of FAA actions as "too narrow" and urges inspections and repairs to be expanded to cover the entire fleet (see ASW, April 21).

June 3, 2003 Aviation Safety Council (ASC), Taiwan's equivalent to the NTSB, releases findings of fatigue cracking and corrosion in 1980 repair of accident aircraft. Source: ASC