Posted on 04/05/2008 8:29:39 AM PDT by indcons
The whistle-blowers who exposed maintenance and inspection problems at Southwest Airlines told Congress their jobs were threatened and their reports of noncompliance were ignored for years.
Federal Aviation Administration inspector Douglas Peters choked up Thursday at a House hearing and needed a few sips of water to tell lawmakers about how a former manager came into his office, commented on pictures of Peters' family being most important, and then said his job could be jeopardized by his actions.
Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., said FAA managers' actions displayed "malfeasance bordering on corruption," adding that if presented to a grand jury, the evidence would result in an indictment.
The FAA last month took the rare step of ordering the audit of maintenance records at all domestic carriers following reports of missed safety inspections at Dallas-based Southwest. The airline was hit with a record $10.2 million fine for continuing to fly dozens of Boeing 737s, which carried an estimated 145,000 passengers, that hadn't been inspected for cracks in their fuselages. Southwest has said it will appeal the penalty.
--snipped to adhere to 300-word limit--
Transportation Department Inspector General Calvin L. Scovel III echoed concerns about the FAA's inspection office responsible for Southwest Airlines, testifying that it had "developed an overly collaborative relationship" with the carrier. "FAA's oversight in this case appears to allow, rather than mitigate, recurring safety violations," Scovel said.
His office found that the agency fails to protect employees who report safety issues and doesn't adequately respond to problems when they are identified. He recommended immediate action be taken to fix the air carrier oversight programs.
Herb Kelleher, Southwest's founder and executive chairman, apologized for allowing planes to fly that should not have.
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
A pity that we can’t use a Grand Jury on the FAA in this case.
how many southwest planes crashed?
Sometimes people think that the problems are not really problems, and that reporting the “problems” will cause unnecessary groundings and cost the company a lot of money, inconvenience passengers, and yes, lead to lay-offs, meaning people will lose their jobs.
Telling someone they will be fired if they report a real problem would be criminal.
Telling someone that they are way out of line, that there is no real problem, and that if they still report the non-problem it could cost a lot of people their jobs, might just be the truth.
In this case, there was a real problem, but do we know people believed there was a real problem?
Why? As I used to hear in law school, you could get a Grand Jury to indict a ham sandwich....
Seems like once there's a crash and subsequent harm, then you can play criminal games...
The story is so devoid of details that we don't know much at all.
I think so. At least I have not heard that they unionized.
Hmmmmm.
Dham Dhims wouldn't recognize corruption if it kicked them in the posterior. Now, if it kicked them in the pocketbook, that might be different--Nah! They're Dhims--nuff said.
vaudine
Ok, I gotta respond to this. If ANYONE for ANY REASON threatens your family in this fashion, get up and walk away. If they yell in your face, scream at you, get up and walk away. This is a lesson I learned when I worked for "satan" as I like to call him. He kicked holes in the walls, threw things and finally I grew a spine. I decided then and there, I would NEVER EVER again respond to threats. No one else should either. Threaten me, I walk. Keep it up, I respond with overwhelming force.
Southwest pilots have their own union.
Thanks. Appreciate the information.
“and we are talking about a non-union airline that has not had any incidents.”
Southwest has TEN different unions covering at least 85% of their workforce. They are as union as any other airline.
One source:
http://www.usatoday.com/educate/college/careers/profile11.htm
It’s an aeronautical truism which I will state thusly:
“The progress in air safety is directly proportional to the number of lives lost.”
As a corollary, airlines and regulatory bodies are most disposed to act when disasters happen.
(Like most truisms, of course, it overstates its case in the interest of brevity and impact.)
Thanks.
Apparently there was a scheduled AD inspection 7/10’s of an inch away from the area that was overlooked and had there been an obvious danger it would have been noticed or so the CEO said. When SWA realized that they missed the AD inspection, which occurred on a Friday afternoon, they called Boeing and asked if there was a need to immediately ground the planes that were skipped over. Boeing said there was no immediate danger, so on Monday SWA notified the FAA. Three months later the FAA said they were being fined $10.2 million.
Given that, then why do you think they are a target when incidents with other airlines are not getting the Congressional or media attention?
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