Southwest Airlines, which carried more passengers in the United States than any other airline last year, declined comment.

No surprise there.

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.

Shocked I say! Shocked that a business would put profits over safety.

Shocked I say! Shocked that a business would put profits over safety.


Uh huh. How many of those planes crashed? How many had mechanical failures?

Do you even realize how much lawsuits cost an airline when they have mechanical problems due to a lack of diligence, particularly when a crash is involved? It's not just the litigation itself, it's the lack of trust the results from a crash where people choose an alternate mode of transportation in lieu of subjecting themselves to the 'dangers' of flying.

Hey if I can get dirt cheap flights I would LOVE to take the chance.

Larry Mohr

Hmmm!

Zap, I hope you follow this to conclusion. You will find that southwest will probably not get any penalty because they did disclose even when the FAA did not know.

An FAA inspector at a Southwest Airlines maintenance facility spotted a fuselage crack on one of the airline's 737s last year, according to the congressional documents.

This is nothing but bull shit, in order to even find the crack it take HFEC/NDI inspections and there is no FAA inspector who monitors the airlines that does this.

Southwest airline is the only airlines who is replacing all of its skins and eliminating all of the AD notes.

Southwest is the safest airlines in the industry, and the reason is they spend more on maintenance than anyother U.S. airlines bar none.

This is political nothing more.

Southwest Airlines has never had a catastrophic crash.

No other major U.S. airline can boast such a claim.

The FAA inspectors are nothing but paper pushers, and wouldn't know how to even begin to look for cracks while doing a walk around the aircraft.

The make sure the paper is up to date, all the T's crossed and I's dotted and the mechanics are following the maintenance instructions laid out by Boeing and the airlines.

This is nothing but bull shit, in order to even find the crack it take HFEC/NDI inspections and there is no FAA inspector who monitors the airlines that does this.

Southwest airline is the only airlines who is replacing all of its skins and eliminating all of the AD notes.

Fuck you, Moneywar.


Southwest is part of the 'Oligarchy' conspiracy. SW needs to murder passengers in order to maintain profitability. They are unable to absord costs associated with litigation - they are part of the oligarchy thus they can't be sued. They are unable to absorb a loss of flyers due to mistrust of airline safety because the American consumer has no other transportation choices - it's either fly, or stay at home.

You are nothing but an airline shill and a liar.

Money,

One of my brother's best friend's mom worked for Northwest when they had a plane crash less than 1/2 mile from Metro airport. She was a customer service rep and she actually had someone call her and ask, "So, how much do you charge for a flight to Middlebelt Ave?"

Needless to say, she hung up on him.

Jeff J,

We here call it Northworst and for good reason.

As for the oligarchy sarcasm, at least southwest is liking their labor union and are the highest paid in the industry and yet, THEY CAN STAY ON TOP.

Southwest is way above par as far as maintenance. I have not ever seen an airlines spend as much as they do for maintenance and making sure their planes are airworthy.

Out of all the U.S. airline in the industry I would fly southwest over all others if quality and maintenance was the concern.

Like I said, no other U.S. airline can boast such a claim as never having a catastrophic crash.

Eenie meenie miney moe,
Grab a seat we've got to go.

And then some black women sued them for saying that.

Needless to say, she hung up on him.

She should have said, sorry that flight is already booked!

We here call it Northworst and for good reason

We've been calling it that for decades. Before the merger, my uncle worked for Republic, and they were horrible too - as he is the first to admit.


She should have said, sorry that flight is already booked!

I think she said, "Sorry, that flight has already been cooked." - and THEN she hung up.

I am shocked, nobody has blamed this on Bush yet.

Freeking Bush and the freeking FAA. Te FAA is in the pocket of corporate america......

Never had a crash, could be another way of saying long overdue for a crash :p

If they really are saving costs on maint and downtime for the bottomline, then whoever is running that place is really effin stupid.

As JeffJ points out... one crash would cost them more than having a few planes in the shop now and then.

Maybe another way to look at this, is that the FAA is providing them with lawsuit insurance in the forum of paperwork checks.

Oakland-Burbank Burbank-Phoenix. Yeah baby!

I would rather walk than fly Northworst.

I haven't flown since 9-11-2001. Not because I'm afraid, but because of the stupid security, like no fingernail clippers, etc. But, if I did still fly, I wouldn't fly SW because of the way they treat their customers. I hate that company. They kick 2 pretty girls off because they're too pretty. I tried to email SW, but guess what? They have no email address you can email to. If I need to go somewhere, I'll drive.

There is a difference in "unsafe planes" and planes that didn't have "current safety checks". I thought journalists were good with the English language. It is a sad day when my English is better than theirs.

"This is why companies need to be regulated, because when things are left up to them, the save money at the expense of people's safety. We've seen this time and again."

JeffJ never heard of the Pinto, even though he lives in Michigan. Strange...

If an airline starts having accidents what do you think the flying public is going to do? Are they going to start flying more with that airline because they need more money for plane repairs or are they going to fly another airline with a better safety record? Seems kinda self regulating to me. An enept, bloted, lazy government oversight dosen't give me a warm fuzzy feeling.

Do you get that same feeling when the same "inept, bloated, lazy" government is handing out billions in no-bid contracts?

"An enept, bloted, lazy government oversight dosen't give me a warm fuzzy feeling."

If a perfect world, there would one, totally unregulated, MoronAirways. People like you would be encouraged to fly them.

Sniper, what happened with Alaska Airlines Flight 261?

Is Alaska Airlines still in business?? Yet they killed 88 people because of their decision to be cheap. Self regulating indeed, let people die first.

Again, nice concept in theory, but in practice we see time and again companies choose money over safety.