The following statement was just issued regarding Southwest Airline's continued internal maintenance audit.
SOUTHWEST AIRLINES CONTINUES INTERNAL INVESTIGATION AND AUDIT
Airline Makes the Decision to Temporarily Remove 38 Aircraft
from Scheduled Service
DALLAS - March 12, 2008 - Yesterday, Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly said the airline is taking action on preliminary findings of its own internal investigation into allegations that it violated FAA regulations in March 2007. Kelly vowed to make any changes necessary to ensure that the airline is in full compliance with FAA Airworthiness Directives and all of its own maintenance programs, policies, and procedures.
During last night's review by Southwest of its maintenance records, the airline discovered an ambiguity related to required testing. Southwest made the decision to take a conservative approach and remove aircraft out of scheduled service. Southwest immediately began reinspecting those aircraft. A total of 44 aircraft were affected-one was already retired, five were in maintenance for scheduled checks, and the remaining 38 were removed from scheduled service.
Southwest's decision to remove aircraft from service resulted in approximately four percent of today's Southwest flights being canceled. Due to good weather conditions, the decision caused minimal schedule disruptions and the airline is running more than 90 percent ontime.
A portion of the aircraft have been inspected, cleared, and returned to service. The airline expects to have all of these aircraft inspected by early this evening. The ongoing internal review of Southwest's maintenance programs, policies, and procedures could potentially create other operational changes if the airline needs to swap or reroute aircraft as the internal investigation and audit unfolds.
"Again, we are mindful that during Southwest's 37-year proud history, we have safely transported the population of the United States-every man, woman, and child-four and a half times over. This is a fact. We have been a safe Company. I believe we are a safe Company. I am committed to making sure we become safer still," said Southwest CEO Gary Kelly.
Comments
The Southwest spin machine continues.
Flying aircraft with AD's that werent complied with.
There is NO excuse or spin you can put on that.
How does this affect flights that are scheduled for later in the month?
I have seen no information that suggests SWA ever flew an unsafe plane, only that planes had failed to complete required inspections as directed by a date certain. Failure to meet an inspection deadline constitutes grounds for an "not airworthy" designation as I understand it. To the extent that this took place and was knowingly ignored either by the company or the FAA, then appropriate steps and sanctions are in order. My understanding is that the fine is approximately $10 million. But this is a long way from saying that the planes in question were, in fact, unsafe. Only that they were delinquent in their testing. In recent days, the web site crankyflyer.com has written extensively on the topic. I urge you to read his post for further clarification.
I have been a loyal SWA flyer for many years and believe that the company remains fully committed to taking whatever steps are necessary to provide the flying public with the safest possible product. If I had a flight tomorrow, I would not hesitate to travel.
Betty,
as the statement says, all of the aircraft should be returned to service by tonight. So your future travel should be fine. Brian
I know that we unfortunately live in a hypersensitive and self-righteous society, but I personally would love to see SWA organize another hilarious sale slogan like with the mini-skirt sale. Perhaps "SWA is Cracking Prices" or something like that :)
Regardless, everything is gravy and this whole issue is a media field day on much ado about nothing. I personally look forward to my next LUV line flight. Keep up the great work and thank you to all your employees for having the confidence to smile and treat us nicely.
I am not entirely suprised by this entire episode. Until recently, I was a loyal Sourthwest customer. I have been travelling between Chicago Midway and Washington Dulles on Southwest every week for the past 8 months. However, around November I began to notice a serious decline in customer service and on time departures. Because I fly in and out of Chicago I am used to weather related delays but with increasingly frequency many delays were due to mechanical problems or with no reason given at all. I have also, noticed that the once "friendly" Southwest employees have become beligerent and rude, especially at Chicago Midway. On top of it all the baggage service at Chicago Midway has become unbearable, with a wait time for my bag averaging 35-40 minutes from the time we disembarked at the gate. After trying to contact Southwest's Midway based Customer Service Manager with no luck, to voice my concerns (I am still waiting for you to return my call!) I decided to make a change back to American Airlines out of Chicago O'Hare. My reasoning is simple, if I am going to be treated poorly by Southwest staff and be late half of the time, I would prefer to travel on an airline that flys in and out of airports closer to my home and office. The cost differential has been minimal with an average difference of $20. So for an extra $20 dollars I am treated better, arrive in a more timely manner, and am closer to my home and office. Its clear Southwest is cutting corners and it has finally caught up with them. Goodbye Southwest, you have lost me as a customer forever!
I have flown SW for 30 years since the flight attendants were called "Stewardesses" and wore hot pants! They weren't made #1 by being incompetant, they're everyone's favorite because they are reasonably priced and fun. It's the only airline I fly if I can because I trust and feel safe flying them. I completely believe that this was an oversight, beaucracy or just a plain big ole mistake and NOT done on purpose by anyone at Southwest. We got that Wright amendment taken care of; we''ll get past this and go on to being the airlines we all LOVE! LZ
And for anyone that says that this is an isolated incident of 3 supervisors, you are kidding yourself. It is the responsibility of the president and ceo to ensure that all areas of operation are satisfactorily implemented. afterall, the supervisors were hired by them. Therefore the uppermanagement and ceo must be accountable for hiring people that didn't meet the criteria... assuming that the ceo and uppermanagement truly had nothing to do with it in the first place. I have a feeling that the ceo did infact know about this all along and probably appoved of it but looked the other way to save money. That is wreckless and shameful. And even if Kelly didn't know about this, he has to step down for the simple reason that he obviously does not have institutional control over his own company. Stop the lies swa!
where's herb when ya need him?
What are you folks thinking? Is failing to inspect as required a matter of corporate policy, or a fact of poor management? Do you expect to survive with the level of care towards customers and their safety that this problem represents?
What is your plan to reestablish the trust of your customers?
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