That is where United Airlines inspector Jim Wilcox examined a Boeing 737 jetliner as closely as a dentist checking for a cavity. He is on loan to the FAA, working at improving techniques for finding problems on aging aircraft. It can be cheaper to continue operating an older plane rather than buying a new one. The Aloha crew managed to fly the crippled jetliner back to Hawaii and make a safe landing. The FAA said the Aloha incident taught them that some aircraft age more rapidly than others and that methods needed to be developed to monitor and deal with a plane's mechanical and structural problems before they caused an accident.
Valley uses use heat and infrared cameras to search for flaws.
Cracks and bad rivets are the target of current testers that use an electronic signal to locate flaws. The jetliners tested at Sandia were donated by the airlines. One 747 that had more than 100,000 flight hours and millions of passengers behind it has undergone close inspection and tests on its wiring. Wiring questions were raised in wake of the crash of TWA Flight 800. Investigators know there was an explosion in the 747's center fuel tank and there is concern that wiring may have been involved in the blast.