Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly late last week said the airline?s operations were “safer today than we?ve ever been,” as federal regulators said they would seek a civil penalty of $10.2 million from the company for failing to inspect older planes for cracks and then flying them before inspections were done.
The Federal Aviation Administration said Southwest operated nearly 60,000 flights in 2006 and 2007 using 46 planes that had missed inspections for possible fatigue-related cracking on the fuselage areas.
Southwest is the largest air carrier at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, offering 172 daily flights, said Jonathan Dean, spokesman for BWI. Dean said he didn?t expect news of the inspections would affect attendance on Southwest flights from Baltimore.
Kelly, appearing on CNN on Friday, said the aircraft were inspected in March 2007, and the company brought the issue to the FAA?s attention and believed it had handled the matter to the agency?s satisfaction.
“There were 46 aircraft that needed to be reinspected. We found cracks on roughly half a dozen of those aircraft. They were repaired properly,” Kelly said. “With respect to those cracks ? the expert ? the Boeing Company said that at no time were those cracks unsafe.”
Kelly said he was surprised by the fine and called the penalty “unprecedented” and “unfair,” adding he has ordered an investigation into the FAA charges.
“I think what we?ve got with the United States of America is the safest aviation system in the world,” Kelly said.
Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., on Friday said the FAA should “clean house from top to bottom” and has too friendly a relationship with the airlines.
“Complacency has likely set in to the highest levels of FAA management,” the Minnesota Democrat said in a Capitol Hill news conference. “I think we have seen the pendulum swing away from vigorous enforcement of compliance toward a carrier-favorable, cozy relationship with the airlines.”
Southwest Airlines is part of The Examiner Top 10, a portfolio of some of the largest publicly traded companies with a significant presence in the Baltimore region.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
