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Southwest Airlines allowed to fly 'unsafe' planes for months
CNN is reporting today on the findings of an ongoing investigation into the safety of Southwest Airlines planes flown as recently as last March. "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 report goes on to mention that several planes were "not air worthy," and the FAA "knew the planes were flying 'unsafely' and did nothing about it." Yikes.
Gallery: The Coolest Airports in the World
Filed under: Airlines
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
Kathy Mar 13th 2008 6:23PM
i have worked for a major airline for over 20 years. sw has always cut corners to make a profit. at one airport they were caught several times dumping their trash in our trash bins simply because they did not want to pay to have it done. also, there were courtesy carts used by all the airlines to transport passengers. all the airlines paid for this service; however, when sw came along, they refused to pay; even though the majority of the passengers using the service were theirs. the other airlines just dropped the service- so now there are no courtesy carts at that airport now. i work in a/c maintenance. it would be very hard to turn a plane in 20 minutes with the proper checks as sw has done for years. they have been very lucky!