Boeing 737 cracks: Ryanair grounds three planes due to cracking between wing and fuselage

At least three Ryanair Boeing 737s have been grounded due to cracks between the wing and fuselage but this was not disclosed to the public, the Guardian can reveal. The budget Irish airline is the latest to be affected by faults in the “pickle fork” structure, which has sparked an urgent grounding of 50 planes globally since 3 October. While other airlines, such as Australia’s Qantas and America’s Southwest, have disclosed the number of their planes affected by the cracks, Ryanair – which operates the largest fleet of 737s in Europe – has previously refused to confirm how many of its planes have been affected. Last Thursday, the airline said it “does not expect” the global pickle fork issue would “have any impact upon our operations or fleet availability”. Three of their planes have been affected by the issue. It is understood that experts do not regard the presence of the cracks as a safety issue as long as appropriate checks are carried out. All three are more than 15 years old. A copy of internal Ryanair engineering logs, seen by the Guardian, lists all three as having “pickle fork cracks”. On Monday, Ryanair did not respond to detailed questions about the aircraft. A spokesman said it was continuing to review aircraft in line with the US Federal Aviation Authority, and “did not expect any impact on its operations or fleet availability”.<br/>