Officials find 17 new cases of airlines missing safety bar

WASHINGTON -- Federal aviation regulators discovered 17 new cases of airlines failing to comply with critical safety mandates in a review prompted by revelations this year of widespread maintenance violations, officials said Friday.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is reviewing whether to take enforcement action in the cases, which involve 11 unnamed carriers, said the agency's acting Administrator Robert Sturgell.

Sturgell said the violations did not create a risk to airline passengers. The agency has conducted 5,618 audits of compliance at large and small airlines across the country and found 2% of cases involved violations, he said.

"This audit gives us confidence that, overall, the system is safe and in almost every instance the airlines are complying with our safety directives," Sturgell said.

The FAA airline reviews were begun in the spring after whistle-blowers revealed that FAA managers had allowed Southwest Airlines to fly 46 jets for months in violation of federal law.

The FAA had mandated that the Boeing 737s be inspected for cracks in the skin that had previously caused accidents, but the inspections were not done even after the airline had discovered the problem and reported it to the FAA.

The agency hit Southwest with a record $10.2 million fine, but not until after whistle-blowers who complained about the violation sought federal protection and congressional investigators subpoenaed records on the violations. Southwest acknowledged the work was not done but is challenging the size of the fine.

The FAA conducted an initial review of critical maintenance compliance, which prompted the discovery of alleged safety violations in American Airlines' fleet of Boeing MD-80s.

All 300 of the carrier's MD-80s were grounded for several days in April, and the airline had to cancel thousands of flights. American said that the violations were minor and that the agency overreacted.

The initial review found seven separate violations involving four airlines.