PASS Questions FAA's Relationship With Airlines

More than few within the aviation industry were surprised to hear Thursday about the record $10.2 million fine proposed by the Federal Aviation Administration against Southwest Airlines, for failing to perform fuselage fatigue inspections on its oldest 737-300 and -500 Classic aircraft in line with federally-mandated timetables. Southwest has owned up to some of the charges, and maintains it informed the FAA of its own oversights last year.

It's worth noting Southwest has an overall safety record almost second to none; the only fatality attributable to the airline came in December 2005, when a small boy died after the car he was riding in was struck by a 737 that careened off an icy runway at Chicago's Midway Airport.

Still, response from within -- and without -- the aviation industry has been swift, and damaging. The severity of the recent charges, and the FAA's proposed fine for noncompliance, guarantees this issue won't go away quietly, and may have long-term ramifications for Southwest... and other carriers, who are likely now checking their own inspection manuals, as well.

For its part, Southwest says it alerted the FAA to the oversights last year. The inspection in question -- meant to detect evidence of fuselage cracking, to prevent the kind of catastrophic fuselage failure that occurred onboard an Aloha Airlines 737-200 in 1988 -- is "one of many routine, redundant, and overlapping inspections of our fleet," according to Southwest spokesperson Paula Berg.

In a posting to customers on Southwest's blog Friday, Berg went on to state "the specific inspection in question involves an extremely small area in one of many overlapping inspections designed to detect early signs of skin cracking on our aircraft. In March 2007, Southwest Airlines discovered a missed inspection area, disclosed the information to the FAA, and promptly reinspected all of our potentially affected aircraft.

"The FAA approved our actions at that time and considered the matter closed as of April 2007," Berg noted. "The Boeing Company, which manufactures all of our aircraft, also supported our aggressive compliance plan, and has issued a statement confirming that we acted responsibly and, more importantly, that the safety of our fleet was not compromised."

If it sounds as though Southwest is surprised at the timing of the FAA charges -- well, they're not alone. The Professional Aviation Safety Specialists -- the union that represents FAA inspectors, including the two who brought allegations of skipped Southwest inspections to the attention of Congress, as ANN reported Thursday -- said the FAA failed to act on the allegations made against Southwest in a timely manner, and the union wants to know why.

"It is appalling that the FAA chose to impose this penalty only after several months of investigations by Congress and the threat of a pending hearing instead of immediately addressing the implications brought forward by inspectors over a year ago," said PASS President Tom Brantley. "The series of events not only highlights the dysfunctional relationship between FAA management and its workforce, but it also perpetuates the fact that the FAA is only willing to take action against the airlines when backed into a corner rather than taking inspectors at their word.

"It is unfortunate that the inspector assigned to Southwest Airlines had to resort to invoking whistleblower protections in order to have his claims validated. Even more unfortunate is that there are other inspectors out there who undergo the same types of retaliatory actions by the FAA and air carriers for simply doing their jobs," Brantley added.

Brantley also accused the FAA of developing "troubling" relationships with the very airlines the agency is tasked with overseeing. "Many of these partnerships have grown into more ‘cozy’ relationships that result in the FAA becoming the protector of the airline rather than the flying public, thus weakening the authority of FAA safety inspectors to perform their job and reducing their role as critical safety enforcers," Brantley accused. "The bottom line is that the FAA appears to be more concerned with keeping airlines solvent rather than safe."

Southwest's Berg said the FAA "has concerns about the inspection process, which we are willing and eager to work with them to resolve. Receipt of the FAA’s letter of penalty gives us the opportunity to present both our case and the facts, which we feel will support our actions taken back in March 2007."

FMI: www.passnational.org, www.southwest.com, www.faa.gov