FAA May Fine Southwest Over Missed Safety Checks

WSJ ^ | 3/6/08 | By ANDY PASZTOR

[BurbankKarl]

Federal aviation regulators are seeking a penalty of at least $3 million from Southwest Airlines Co. for failing to properly inspect nearly four dozen older planes for potentially hazardous structural cracks, according to people familiar with the details. The penalty is expected to be the largest imposed against any passenger carrier in about two decades.

The Department of Transportation and a congressional committee are examining why the Federal Aviation Administration didn't ground the planes temporarily last March after learning of the missed inspections. The case focuses on the carrier's failure to perform certain inspections on its older-version Boeing 737-300s as required.

Calling it an inadvertent internal-maintenance misstep, the airline initially believed as many as 100 planes out of a fleet of more than 190 of those models were affected, according to one person familiar with details. The inspections are part of an FAA 2004 aging-aircraft safety directive.

Southwest completed all the inspections roughly 10 days after it voluntary alerted the agency about the problem, which didn't cause any accidents or incidents. Six of the 46 affected aircraft turned out to have cracks -- some as long as four inches -- in the fuselage, according to one person familiar with details. The mandatory inspections, part of federal and industry efforts to ensure the structural integrity of older passenger jets, are designed to detect and repair such cracks when they are much smaller and pose less of a safety risk.

A Southwest spokeswoman said the Dallas airline isn't aware of any intent of a civil penalty against the carrier, and would be surprised by one "considering it was Southwest that found, disclosed and fixed this issue last March, which the FAA accepted and then determined the matter to be closed."

[FormerACLUmember]

Serious business. The FAA is one of those rare federal agencies which actually does its job. No amount of bribery to the democrats should allow this violation to go unanswered.

[BurbankKarl]

ping

[Reeses]

737-300s

You know BurbankKarl, Southwest 737-300s can't take off from Burbank airport at full weight if the wind isn't blowing strong enough in the right direction. I sat in one for an hour waiting for the wind to pick back up before they decided to unload a dozen passengers, some fuel, and what looked like half the luggage. They try to avoid landing 737-300s there because of that, so you're safe, kind of.

[BurbankKarl]

was it a hot day?

I remember 20 years ago sitting on a flight, and they offloaded people, fuel and baggage, we took off, flew to Ontario to get more fuel...then flew to Seattle.

[Reeses]

Yes it was an Indian summer day. Those 737s don’t have a lot of excess power. When a 747 takes off it means business, throws you back in your seat and keeps you there, while a 737 seems to lose steam half way down the runway.

[razorback-bert]

Last year, I flew from San Diego to Las Vegas in a brand new Southwest plane.

[Moonman62]

Serious business. The FAA is one of those rare federal agencies which actually does its job.

I think the NTSB may disagree with that statement.

[jtormey3]

The ersatz impostor federal regulators of aviation have failed this country yet again, with their own arrogance, malice, incompetence, and ignorance.

The bottom line on the 60,000-plus Southwest Airlines flights in 2006-2007 and the many cracks in the airplanes used in those flights, called by Rep. Oberstar as “one of the worst safety violations” he has ever seen:

(1) the FAA let it happen, and thereby callously and malevolently put us all in harm’s way;

(2) it happened under Bobby Sturgell’s watch as well as Marion Blakey’s watch;

(3) the FAA looked the other way when first apprised of it happening - so that now, the only question is how high in the FAA did that cover-up go, just like we asked about the Watergate burglary and Sturgell’s namesake Frank Sturgis a few years ago; and

(4) the FAA is now fining Southwest, to give itself, the FAA, political cover; not to mention likely to try to subsidize the now-spendthrift FAA’s extensive litigation defense-costs brought about by 13-and-counting litigations and the FAA’s mismanagement and trampling of the rights of innocent Americans.

This is the FAILED AVIATION AGENCY. The American public must hit the “Eject” button on Bobby Sturgell, and replace him with an Administrator who is actually competent. NOW.