Nuts About Southwest

I heard on the news today that Southwest is cancelling some flights because of the planes they grounded. I am flying Southwest tomorrow, and it would sure be nice to know if my flight is being cancelled. Of course, there is nothing on the Southwest website about cancelled flights. I hope I don't show up at the airport tomorrow and discover there is no plane to board.

This keeps going down here.. As a Mechanic with 10+ years 737 experience, As state above, all airplanes have cracks. Maintenance departments work very vigoursly to find and fix these as soon as they are found.

To answer the above statement on 3 incidences with SWA, The issue here is Maintenance, those were not maint issues and off topic in my opinion. I worked for another airline, A/C made VERY VERY ROUGH Landing (a 737, not SWA). Bounced about 4 times down the runway. Pilot Wrote in the Logbook: "A/C Autoland Very Rough". Working Line Avionics, I got to look at the problem. The solution was a couple lose nuts in the cockpit. My signoff as it appeared "This A/C NOT Autoland Capible!". This was an incident that caused some issues in the company (atleast CNN did not see it), The Loose Nuts had some VERY hard questions to answer. But this WAS NOT A MAINTENANCE ISSUE.

Reseaching SWA, which I have done exentisvly (and I am not an SWA Employee), there are NO OTHER maint issues with SWA. Why does everyone keep throwing (virtual) rocks here. They admitted fault, worked to fix the problem, and working to make sure it does not happen again.

Once flying on an SWA Airline, I noticed a MINOR Hydraulic leak, as a Licensed A&P Mechanic. I notified the Flight Crew. I know where the problem was, even though I do not know the exact problem. But what I do know, is that a properly and effieciently trained mechanic responded to the problem, and the plane made its next flight with little or no delay. I salute SWA for thier efficiency and professionalism in maintaining their a/c to such a high level. I also remember on my first flight on SWA noting that how nice the Interior looked. Almost Brand New, I asked the crew if it was just out of heavy... He said no, but it was getting ready to go back in to maintenance. I thought, WOW, these planes are really maintained to an exceptional high level of maintenance. If they do this good on the Interior where it does not count, what do they do on the outside where it does. I only wish the Airline that I worked for had this level of competience and nice looking cabins!

As a closing note to all of you complaining about how bad this is... The next time that you make a Mistake.. I hope that CNN is there to support you and stretch your story so far out of propotion that all the rest of us can enjoy your pains that you are suffering... That is all that is going on right now. CNN Got an article, throwing it out of propotion, making profits on it at SWA's Loss... Nothing more, nothing less.

Think about this:
Rep. James Oberstar is a Democrat from Minnesota and...
Rep. Oberstar heads the House Transportation Committee and...
Minnesota is the Headquarters for Northwest Airlines and...
Northwest Airlines has serious labor and financial problems and ...
This whole thing wreaks of Politics!

Southwest does it better than any other carrier out there and the Drive-by Media know it........but ratings win out over the truth every time.

To Concerned Passenger:
Bet I could guess who you work for!
Any safety related incident is unfortunate. As a
SW Flight Attendant, I am thankful to work for an airline that
really does put safety first. It does not surprise me that
SW addressed the problem then took care of it.

As for other airlines (Concerned Passenger),
check their track record and you will see ...
Southwest has been doing something right over the 37 years.
Southwest has always stressed Safety the #1 Priority.

God bless Southwest Airlines,
and all the wonderful passengers that fly with us!

I understand many peoples' concerns, as well as the lawyer's sense there's a lawsuit where he can make some money, but this is really silly.
Obviously, if there's an inspection required it needs to be done and documented. Gary Kelley shouldn't have said "it was 99% complete" he should've said "the documentation was 99% complete." Of course, if it isn't documented it didn't happen, but the fact is that approximately 0.6% of the documentation/inspection was missed. The FAA didn't discover this, SWA did and voluntarily disclosed it. They could've put profits ahead of safety and falsified the documentation and never taken the aircraft out of service but they did the responsible thing. They got with the manufacturer and the FAA, came up with a plan all deemed safe and executed that plan, even completeing it earlier than required.
Now if the FAA made a mistake that's not SWA's fault. There is absolutely no eveidence or even credible allegations that SWA deceived the FAA in any way. The FAA as the regulatory authority could've grounded the aircraft at their next stop and demanded they be inspected but that's not what they did. The FAA agreed with Boeing and SWA as to the course of action and now a year later they come out of left field with a $10.2 million fine. There's an agenda here but it's not SWA's agenda.
Cracks. Folks, I don't want to alarm you but all aircraft have cracks in the skin, and frequently in other places. The idea is to catch them before they result in the convertible B737 like what happened in Hawaii. The inspection program developed jointly by SWA and Boeing is the industry standard and resulted in the AD in question.
I'm confident in saying responsible airlines see safety and dollars as hand in hand and not mutually exclusive. Wrecked and grounded airplanes are bad for business. Bad publicity is bad for business as well. I agree with a previous post that Rep. Oberstar definately has an agenda (maybe SWA is planning on going further into NWA turf) and the FAA may have one as well. That might be where I'd look if I were a reporter because it appears there's no evidence of any deception or backroom dealings by SWA.

The safety record for Southwest isn't that great. There was one fatality recently. Remember the winter landing on a contaminated runway at Chicago's Midway airport?

2007 - Southwest slid off the taxi way in Spokane Washington, most likely because they were taxiing at the fast pace they usually do. Nothing wrong with that, however there was 6 inches of snow on the ground! Most people know to slow down while it's snowing.

2005 - Southwest was trying a new breaking procedure on a very contaminated runway that was shorter than normal at Chicago Midway. They went through the end of the runway and across a busy intersection killing an innocent 5 year old sitting in the car with his dad.

2000 - Southwest went through the end of the runway again in just rain. They landed going way too fast and about half way down the runway, much farther than they should have before a go around was initiated. That go around was never initiated and the plane went through the runway and across a busy road and parked, after losing the landing gear, at a Chevron station. Would have caused a nice sized fireball.

These are all things that could have been averted if better decisions were made. They didn't have to happen.

I have flown extensively for business over the last 15 years, I have a pilot's license, and a degree in aviation safety and SWA has been and I predict will continue to be one of the safest and most successful airlines extant.

Those of you bed-wetting liberals who believe the media hype and political agenda and are now scared to fly SWA - good riddance to you. I will enjoy having more open seats that SWA can sell to level-headed, intelligent, and responsible people who are undoubtedly more pleasant to be around.

To "Tom" who posted on March 10 - you say that you don't wish to fly on 733 aircraft (737-300) because they are "old." It may interest to know that many of SWA's -300 series aircraft were purchased in the 1990's all the way up to their first delivery of a -700 which occurred, I believe, in late 1997. So, the majority of -300 aircraft are not old. Also, you might note that the proper designator for the -700 is 73G.

What I find most troubling about this entire airworthiness directive (AD) affair *isn't* that some aircraft missed an inspection deadline, but how the media strives for immediacy in reporting at the expense of the facts (all of them, not just some) and the proper context of those facts.

Southwest apparently missed an inspection area that constituted about 1% of the requirements of the AD, meaning that 99% of the other inspection requirements had been complied with. To hear the media tell it, Southwest didn't inspect any aircraft at all. Nor does *every* crack spell immediate doom for an aircraftÃ

Alex, you're right, you have a higher chance crashing your car than flying AA, UAL, USAir, JetBlue, Frontier, etc... At least they haven't avoided inspections like SWA and NWA!

You can use Flightaware to determine which class of 737 you are likely to get. For example: The Long Island-Baltimore leg has 7 non-stop flights.
The following flights normally get the -700. Flight 796, 978, 3592 and Flights 3049, 292 and 1222 have gotten the -300. Flight 3686 which leaves ISP at 8:35 PM EDT is making its first flight under this number and plan so later tonight we will know which plane will be typically assigned to that one. Which normally happens the first days after the time change. For those of you who wish to make the extra effort to get a -700. Use Flightaware to get a history of which plane you are likely to get.