Swa maintenance issues?

[AV80R]

No SWA bashing please but has this article already been posted? Also, do you think this will hurt the SWA growth rate?


Southwest Airlines allowed to fly 'unsafe' planes for months.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- -- Discount air carrier Southwest Airlines flew thousands of passengers on aircraft federal inspectors said were "unsafe" as recently as last March, according to detailed congressional documents obtained by CNN. Congressional documents show Southwest Airlines flew thousands of passengers on aircraft deemed "unsafe" by federal inspectors.

Documents submitted by FAA inspectors to congressional investigators allege the airline flew at least 117 of its planes in violation of mandatory safety checks. In some cases, the documents say, the planes flew for 30 months past government inspection deadlines that should have grounded the planes until the inspections could be completed.
The planes were "not air worthy," according to congressional air safety investigators.
Calling it "one of the worst safety violations" he has ever seen, Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minnesota, is expected to call a hearing as soon as possible to ask why the airline put its own passengers in danger.
Southwest Airlines, which carried more passengers in the United States than any other airline last year, declined comment on the allegations.
"We are not doing interviews. We are only preparing for the hearings at this time," said Southwest Airlines spokeswoman Brandy King.
cont...

Full article

 

[Headfake14]

yada yada...someone trying to dig up dirt on them.

 

[captainv]

Yada yada yada?

SWA flew 30 months past inspection and that's not a big deal?

 

[wildcard]

Hate to say this but Welcome Southwest to the Airline industry. They are NOW like everyone else! This is truely a sad day.

 

[Zdriver]

My guess for what it's worth, is they just switched over to a new computerized maintance program, which caught the mistake. The oversite was self reported, there will probly be fines associated with the oversite, but these things happen all the time in aviation.

 

[becket]

yada yada...someone trying to dig up dirt on them.

What a stupid comment. Did you read the report? Do you know what a rudder hard-over is? PIT 1994 ring a bell?

It's been patently obvious to anybody that flys for a living that SWA has Always gotten preferential treatment by the FAA. Now heads are probably going to start rolling. It's about damn time.

Let's see "ol' herb" up on the hill, and joke his way out of this one.

 

[embpic1]

Well it is the main story on cnn.com. It looks like they did not self disclose. Two FAA inspectors are blowing the whistle on this one. It sounds like some FAA officials are in hot water also.

 

[Raskal]

Wow, just when all my faith in airline management was restored...

 

[Quimby]

What a stupid comment. Did you read the report? Do you know what a rudder hard-over is? PIT 1994 ring a bell?

It's been patently obvious to anybody that flys for a living that SWA has Always gotten preferential treatment by the FAA. Now heads are probably going to start rolling. It's about damn time.

Let's see "ol' herb" up on the hill, and joke his way out of this one.

so much venom towards SWA......what'd they do to you?

 

[A-Track]

They did self disclose but still did nothing about it. I guess I missed the part in the FAR's where AD's are optional.

"The documents show Southwest Airlines voluntarily disclosed some of the missed inspections last spring, and Southwest Airlines told the Wall Street Journal it did not expect any civil penalties to be imposed because of the self-disclosure.
But, even after the airline's disclosure, FAA inspectors assert that planes continued to fly, in some cases for more than a week, before inspections were complete. The airline "did not take immediate, corrective action," according to the congressional documents obtained by CNN."

 

[On Your Six]

Don't worry, Tanker Clown will be flying for SWA soon and he will ensure everything is on the right track. Everyone should feel safer knowing that.

 

[becket]

so much venom towards SWA......what'd they do to you?

I'm just sick of having to wait for them to either land or push back so I can be cleared to follow them on the taxi. ATC gives them such blatant preferential treatment it's obscene. We all have schedules to keep and fuel ain't cheap.

I have more venom against the Feds than SWA.

 

[ackattacker]

Beyond the inevitable fines, it's not good for SWA to get front-page headlines like this. Ouch.

 

[Whataburger]

I'm just sick of having to wait for them to either land or push back so I can be cleared to follow them on the taxi. ATC gives them such blatant preferential treatment it's obscene. We all have schedules to keep and fuel ain't cheap.

I have more venom against the Feds than SWA.

Probably doesn't hurt us that we're Always ready for taxi 2 minutes after push starts, we Never have to wait for numbers, and wil get the hell out of their airport asap.

 

[Whataburger]

Beyond the inevitable fines, it's not good for SWA to get front-page headlines like this. Ouch.

Ask Brittney how bad news in the media has hurt her. You know as well as I do that regardless of this news the flying public will forget about this in a week and point and click on the cheapest fare that is getting them to their spring break destination.
Yea it sux we missed something. Thank God nothing happened. Sh!t happens. We fly 3,500 legs a day, over 1mil a year, and have well over 500 planes. Do you think you could run a perfect operation with all those moving parts? I couldn't.
Why all the haters?

 

[PCL_128]

Why all the haters?

Because guys like you keep making excuses for it. "Sh!t happens?" Are you kidding me? Airplanes flying around for 30 months without the required rudder inspections? On airplanes that have a horrible history of rudder hard-overs? Why can't you just admit that your management was in the wrong here? It's obvious that they did this to save a buck, even though they knew that it was in violation of the law and a danger to their crews and customers. This is simply appalling.

 

[Dude]

We missed inspections, not repairs. There is a big difference. Boeing, the FAA, and we got caught with our britches down but not one passenger has been injured. The sad thing is that this all pertains to bureaucratic BS. If it were up to the feds, not a single jet would leave the gate.

The news has got to find a way to scare the hell out of everyone and this is another attempt. My guess is that $49.00 fares will cause amnesia and that passengers would fly strapped to the engine-pod if it would save them $5.00. The public wants to see outrage, not action. Action would result in higher ticket prices across the board. If we fixed everything and made our industry stupid proof, then most of us would be out of work because the public wouldn't be able to afford the privilege to fly. This looks bad but so does everything else these days. If I listened to the news I would be worried about my impending foreclosure and McCain coming over in the middle of the night to draft my 1st born to fight in Iraq for the next 100 years.

The same old story gets boring. Comair, jetBlue, American, Northwest-Delta, United-Continental, now it's Southwest trying to fly convertible 737s. Tomorrow, General Lee will get caught in a closed hotel pool with an underage valet at 3:00AM.

 

[Yuppyguppy]

What a stupid comment. Did you read the report? Do you know what a rudder hard-over is? PIT 1994 ring a bell?

It's been patently obvious to anybody that flys for a living that SWA has Always gotten preferential treatment by the FAA. Now heads are probably going to start rolling. It's about damn time.

Let's see "ol' herb" up on the hill, and joke his way out of this one.

AMEN BROTHER!!

 

[Dude]

PCL,

It was for skin fatigue, not the rudder. By the way, it ain't that apalling dude. You are either naive or unrealistic about even your own company's practices. This isn't exactly uncommon, industry wide. If AAI makes every inspection, misses nothing, adequately respresents itself and their maintenece practices everytime without fail, I apologize for my unfair characterizations.

 

[CA1900]

We missed inspections, not repairs. There is a big difference.

So... you fixed everything you found, but you missed the part about looking for things to fix?


Sounds like my old boss in North Palm Beach, who wouldn't use the local maintenance shop for his inspections because "they're just looking for trouble." (Instead, he found a shop 100 miles away that'd do an annual on anything for $300. Nice...)



+1 on the General Lee reference, though.