I attended the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Transportation Infrastructure hearing last month regarding Southwest Airlines and the FAA. The hearing was riveting. A summary of the facts states, "On March 15, 2007, Southwest Airlines (SWA) notified the FAA of a voluntary disclosure of a potential non-compliance with the Airworthiness Directive (AD) related to aging aircraft skin cracks and that up to 100 aircraft were overdue for the required inspection. SWA submitted its formal VDRP application on March 19, 2007 on a total of 47 of these aircraft. These aircraft were brought into compliance by March 23, 2007. However, the FAAs SWA CMO [Certificate Management Office] and the airlines failed to ground these aircraft between March 15 and March 23. SWA continued to fly the aircraft in passenger revenue service in direct violation of the AD and Federal Regulations. The FAA SWA CMO management closed the VDRP on April 10, 2007." What it doesn't say is that some FAA inspectors allege that another FAA supervisor gave SWA the OK to continue flying the aircraft.
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