Southwest Grounds 42 Boeing Jets Overnight Amid Inquiry Into Safety Record -- Update

Following reports yesterday that Southwest Airlines and FAA officials may have falsified safety reports, the airline suddenly grounded 42 of its Boeing jets last night. (News reports differ about the exact number grounded -- some say 41 planes were grounded.)

The move comes a week after the Federal Aviation Administration announced plans to fine the airline $10.2 million for failing to conduct required safety checks and for continuing to fly un-inspected planes even after the airline knew that it was in violation of safety rules.

The FAA is also under investigation by the Department of Transportation's inspector general after two of its employees blew the whistle on supervisors who, they claim, failed to force Southwest to ground the planes last March when the airline first notified the FAA that it had failed to conduct inspections. The FAA whistleblowers say they experienced retribution when they tried to get supervisors to investigate the issue with Southwest.

It's unclear from the news reports out today why the airline grounded the planes last night. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, Southwest, when it finally got around to conducting inspections last year, discovered cracks in half a dozen planes. I have calls in to the FAA and Southwest.

UPDATE: Although Southwest hasn't returned my call, the FAA just released a brief statement providing a little more information about the grounding of 41 planes last night. The statement says, in part:

UPDATE II: Southwest just called back. Company spokeswoman Brandy King says the planes were grounded last night in relation to a five-year-old service bulletin that Boeing had released back in 2002 that addressed "skin around the windows" of the aircraft.

King told me the bulletin affected 44 Southwest planes, but only 38 were actually grounded last night. That's because of the 44 planes, five were already undergoing maintenance and a sixth plane had been retired from Southwest's fleet since the 2002 bulletin was released. The airline has since put 25 of the 38 planes back in service and expects to complete inspection on the remaining planes by this evening.

Southwest Airlines notified the FAA that, as part of an internal safety audit, they last night grounded 41 aircraft until they could verify with the FAA that they had correctly followed inspection guidance stated in an airworthiness directive related to a specific area of the aircraft surrounding the windows on 737-300’s and -500's.

Photo: AP

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