Nuts About Southwest

The latest changes in airline security will not increase safety, but they will turn flying into mobile penitentiaries. I've visited someone in prison. I don't want to duplicate that experience when I travel. I'll take my chances with a suicidal idiot getting on my flight--the odds of which would be reduced by an intelligent approach to address real threats rather than humiliating hundreds of millions of innocent travelers.
I hope someone from SWA reads this post. Listen up: I will decrease my flying to the irreducible minimum unless we roll back all the idiocy that only turns law-abiding travelers into cattle. Dump the shoe searches and all the rest of the useless dragnet approach to violating our privacy. Put pressure on the federal government to focus security on travelers with a high probability of terrorist activity. Search them. Search their luggage. Don't let them buy cash tickets and travel without a passport (duh). Let the rest of us travel in peace and dignity.

UPDATE 1, 16 Mar 08! "Safety & Boarding System Problems"!

Safety Issue with an AD not Performed??? Get real!, this is truely not important (a small one-time expensive issue) in the large sceme of things with flying and SWA, when compared with the problems with the SWA Boarding System! I hope you read on and post some of your experiences with the SWA Boarding System (Not based on so-called Tradition or Nostalgia with the Cattle Call Boarding System!)!

Although Important because aircraft safety is involved (one-instance), the real safety issue with SWA is not the one being talked about endlessly! Its the crazy/weird SWA Boarding system that could get you in a fight or ran over by other Passengers trying to be first in line or get in their correct SWA assigned row position! SWA Passengers need to write and lobby SWA Mgt to make some logical changes ( a real break from no reserved seating) to its non-functional Boarding System and its new rule to Board Women, Children, and handicapped Passengers between BC (Business Class) and Row B Passengers! This is a disservice to all Passengers in that such needy Passengers are more inconvienced and B row Passengers have no chance of getting decent seats! Former A row Passengers are now relegated to 2nd Class Passengers and get what seats that may be left after high paying BC Passengers board First (if they are on-time) to get a preferred seat! Just try getting a low A row number now on full flights 24 Hours in advance, when BC can get theirs 36 Hours in advance! This completes the update One!

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New Boarding Process-After the Holidays (Title from Archived Blog ending Feb 08)

This Blog space is too small (I think) to list all my negative comments about the new boarding system (even much worst then the hated old one), so I plan to follow-up with a formal USPS letter (SWA still does not accept email letters, due to bone-headed tradition and plain poor and slow Customer Service feedback options!!) to the SWAÃ

Ken,
Look on the bright side -- when all of these agitated travelers "re-evaluate" their risks of traveling on Southwest and every other airline or means of public transportation, our freeways, buses, trains, planes and airports will be so much less crowded. These folks are quite correct, as the risks of personal injury or incidents of any type will be significantly reduced if they just stay at home.

Now, let's tackle the issue of the safety of eating at a public restaurant, or perhaps going to the mall to do some shopping.
Kim
External Blog Boy

All of you frequent fliers that are "re-evaluating" your future flights on Southwest, ask yourself a question, has anything ever happened? NO. These safety checks are due because of ONE aircraft in 1988 that lost ONE flight attendant. I highly doubt that Southwest would have continued flying these planes if danger were imminent.

what "moderation"?

Dear SW,

I am 80 years old, and what few airtrips I take annually have been with you. I am at an age where I know that I must accept the "inevitable". I have reserved a flight at the end of this month from Fort Lauderdale to Chicago Midway and return. Just assure me that my "inevitable" will not be due to traveling in one of your aircraft that has no business being up there. That's all I ask. Can you do that much for me? Thank you.

Herbert Siegel
Deerfield Beach, Florida

What do you folks lay the odds that a high calibre maintenance organization with qualified inspectors using approved software could miss a structural AD? Not logical. There must be a better explanation...
Did the FAA lie to SWA? You bet! Look at the results of the FAA internal investigation:
Aviation Safety Inspector Comeau leaves FAA and goes to work for SWA.
This violates the ethics law. Call Kim Tolar FAA Ethics Lawyer SW Region for verification.
FAA Supervisor Gawadzinski removed for conflict of interest?
FAA Manager of Cert Management Office Michael Mills removed for incompetence?
FAA Division Manager Tomas J. Stuckey retaliates against whistleblowers Bobby Boutris and Douglas Peters by putting them under investigation by his hit team from FAA Security. This is how I know:
I suffered retaliation for the last ten years in the FAA for making whistleblower disclosures to congress three times, and again for disclosures to the Office of Special Council (three more times).
I have a lawsuit pending in Federal District Court against the FAA.
The older inspectors are being forced out and replaced with younger less experienced inspectors at a lower pay scale. It's called dumbing down the agency. The new hires will top out at a lower grade than I hired in at in 1990.
The reporters from the Dallas Morning News were very careful to learn the facts before printing their story. I know because I briefed them about Aging Aircraft Structural Inspections, AD's and Boeing SSID's.
Myself and many others who have been forced to retire from the FAA are dedicated to the safety of the flying public and the aviation community. That is why we came forward at great cost.
The FAA in its present form is about power and personal gain, not aviation or safety.

Wow, weÃ

It is honorable to try to be a "Company man" when the Company is taking such a beating. However, as Employees were vigorously defending SWA, Southwest Airlines grounded 41 aircraft. "Doing the right thing" AFTER you get caught doesn't cut it.
Courteous and friendly service doesn't go a heckuva long way when the skin of your plane is ripped off at 30,000 feet, does it? Furthermore, Southwest's flat out denial of any wrongdoing on Monday, and then "suspending" three MX yuckety-yuks (only three???), and now grounding 41 A/C in less than 48 hours speaks volumes about the integrity of the Company. Ivestigation, investischmation. If anything, the American public should be aware that if SWA is good at anything, it is maintaining a good "brand" on its Company name. Besides the last year or so, when was the last time you heard anything bad about SWA? It's not because bad things, lawsuits and the bad press isn't readily available- I can assure you of that. It is because SWA hides, covers up, pays off, settles with...etc- however you want to word it- anyone that may make the Company look bad. They have the cash and funding to afford that luxury. This time, they could not do that- and of all things, it had to involve not a skimpy skirt, not oversized Customers, but the MOST important facet of any airline- safety. You can spin that however you want. Yes, the MX folks at Southwest are among the best in the biz. Sure, they "care". It would be one thing if this involved one or two aircraft- an easy paper mistake. But 41 airplanes? Even the king of name branders can't duck and cover from that one. Sorry- it's a bitter pill to swallow (especially for Employees). Employees must now ask themselves: "now that the Company can't cut corners with the safety of the flying public anymore, where will that money come from?" Contracts for all major Employee groups are expiring soon...stay tuned!

I'm a remote lover of SWA. And I'm dreaming having a compound like Herb and Barret founded.
A safety finding is relity in life, and yet in aviation business. There's never been 100% safe at all times, unless in heaven

What's published in media concerning SWA is nothing but routine in our life. It's not a sin, at all..

The credit is when the organization respond it properly, effectively. Chain of corrective and remedial respond and action building an endless improvement in any specific area..

That's the case
Look ahead, go further miles and miles

Best Regards,
Capt. Noor Wahjudie
n.wahjudie@garuda-indonesia.com
cell. + 62 813 18 586 586