Southwest Airlines Faces FAA Penalty
The FAA says Southwest Airlines used 46 planes that had not been inspected.
DALLAS, March 6, 2008— -- Federal regulators said Thursday they will seek acivil penalty of $10.2 million, the largest ever, against SouthwestAirlines Co. for failing to inspect older planes for cracks andthen flying them before inspections were done.
The FAA said Southwest operated nearly 60,000 flights using 46planes that had not been inspected for possible fatigue-relatedcracking on the fuselage areas.
The airline flew another 1,451 flights with the same planes inMarch 2007, even after discovering that it had failed to conductthe required inspections, the FAA charged.
The agency had ordered airlines in September 2004 to conduct theinspections on some older models of Boeing 737 aircraft.
"The FAA is taking action against Southwest Airlines for afailing to follow rules that are designed to protect passengers andcrew," said Nicholas A. Sabatini, the agency's associateadministrator for safety. "We expect the airline industry to fullycomply with all FAA directives and take corrective action."
The airline said Thursday it had complied with regulators'requests and would contest any fine. The airline has 30 days torespond to the FAA.
The aim of the FAA's 2004 directive was to make sure airlinecrews found and repaired small cracks before they became largeenough to pose a safety hazard.
A spokeswoman for Southwest, Beth Harbin, said the airlinebrought the issue to the FAA's attention and believed it hadhandled the matter to the agency's satisfaction. Harbin said theairline believed the case was closed last year.
"We brought in 46 airplanes to take another look at them,"Harbin said. "These are preventive inspections. On six of the 46we found the start of some very small cracking. That's the intentof the inspection schedule - to find something before it becomes aproblem. These are safe planes."
A congressional committee is looking into why the FAA didn'tground the planes when it learned of the missed inspections a yearago.
FAA regulations require that airplanes be grounded if amandatory inspection has been missed, until the work can beperformed.
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