Southwest Faces $10.2 Million Fine - But Were Root Causes Found and Fixed?
There was an interesting article in the Houston Chronicle. It discusses a maintenance problem (overdue inspections) on Southwest jets.
The FAA is proposing $10,2 million in fines. The article says:
The FAA alleged that between June 18, 2006, and March 14, 2007, Southwest operated more than 59,000 flights without complying with a 2004 order requiring repetitive inspections of fuselage areas to detect fatigue cracking.
Further, the FAA charged that the airline flew nearly 1,500 more flights using the same planes in March 2007, even after it determined that it had not done the necessary inspections.
“The FAA is taking action against Southwest Airlines for a failing to follow the rules that are designed to protect passengers and crew,” Nicholas Sabatini, the FAA’s associate administrator for aviation safety, said in a prepared statement.
The fine is the largest levied against an air carrier, FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said.
The missed inspections were discovered by Southwest and self-reported to the FAA. The missed inspections were then performed in the month of March 2007. Cracks were found and corrected in 6 or the 46 jets that were inspected.
What were the root causes of the missed inspections and have they been corrected?
Fines do little good if the problems root causes aren’t effectively addressed.
My hope is that both the FAA and Southwest thought of this. Why didn’t the reporter dig deeper to find this out and include it in the story?
Reporting on the politics of a fine is one thing, but assuring passengers of their safety by verifying that an effective root cause analysis was performed is quite another.