Southwest: We're back to normal operations

Southwest Airlines said Tuesday it had completed all safety inspections on its planes and had resumed normal operations, four days after a 5-foot hole was torn in the roof of one of its passenger jets.

The inspections found "subsurface cracking" in five planes that will remain out of service until they are repaired. Two other planes await inspections, which were expected to be completed by Wednesday. The airline said it resumed normal service Tuesday without them.

Friday, a Southwest Boeing 737-300 was heading from Phoenix to Sacramento when it made an emergency landing in Yuma, Ariz., after the hole opened in the 15-year-old plane's fuselage. A passenger and a flight attendant passed out from lack of oxygen; no one was seriously hurt.

Southwest grounded all of its Boeing 737 series 300 planes to look for fuselage cracks. The inspections resulted in major service disruptions around the United States, including at Long Island MacArthur Airport, where Southwest is the primary commercial air carrier.

The Federal Aviation Administration subsequently said it planned to issue an emergency directive mandating the inspections of nearly 100 older-model Boeing 737s around the world.

In a statement, Southwest said Tuesday said it believed its voluntary inspections "will accomplish this directive for Southwest Airlines."

Long Island MacArthur spokeswoman Catherine Green said service was back to normal at the Ronkonkoma airport Tuesday. She said airport officials have been in "close contact" with Southwest since Friday's incident, and have been assured that all planes flying in and out of MacArthur are "cleared for safety."