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When Southwest Airlines on Tuesday grounded 128 planes after discovering it failed to perform mandatory inspections of the backup hydraulic systems on the aircrafts, it begged the obvious question:
What is a backup hydraulic system and how important is it?
Well, just ask Capt. Chesley Sullenberger and the 155 people he saved in 2009 with his famous water landing.
Sullenberger lost power in both engines when the US Airways flight leaving LaGuardia Airport hit a flock of birds. He made the decision to ditch the flight in the Hudson River, and as the Wall Street Journal reported six years ago, he was able to do so thanks to the backup hydraulic system that was still working during the gliding descent and was able to power the aircraft's flight-control system.
According to fearofflyinghelp.com, "aircraft have separate and redundant hydraulic systems to power flight controls, flaps, gear, thrust reversers, brakes, spoilers, etc. Each engine has a hydraulic pump and there is also an electric powered hydraulic pump. Some airplanes utilize a wind driven backup hydraulic pump."
However, if there is a loss of power, AND the backup hydraulic system is down, there are myriad problems.
A Southwest spokeswoman issued a statement saying that the airline had informed the Federal Aviation Administration of the issue at 5 p.m. on Tuesday.
"Southwest Airlines discovered an overdue maintenance check required to be performed on the standby hydraulic system, which serves as a back-up to the primary hydraulic systems. As a result of this discovery, 128 -700 aircraft were identified as having overflown a required check," she said. "Once identified, Southwest immediately and voluntarily removed the affected aircraft from service, initiated maintenance checks, disclosed the matter to the FAA, and developed an action plan to complete all overdue checks. The FAA approved a proposal that would allow Southwest to continue operating the aircraft for a maximum of five days as the checks are completed. Approximately 80 cancellations occurred (Tuesday) as a result of the events and the airline is anticipating a very minimal impact to their operations (today). The safety of our customers and employees remains our highest priority, and we are working quickly to resolve the situation."
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