When you board an aircraft, assume that all safety precautions have been taken. You might grumble when a flight is delayed because of something that needs to be checked or a small problem that doesn’t seem major, but the reality is that most people believe that every precaution should be taken when traveling by air.
However, the people who do these jobs are human, and that means they can have a bad day, slack off a little, or turn away from a potential problem for one reason or another. That’s no big deal for the people inspecting how clean an airplane’s lavatories are or whether they’ve been properly sanitized.
You might get sick from lax standards in these areas, but you’re not going to fall from the sky, burst into flames, or die in any of the worst ways imaginable. But when people back down or look the other way when it comes to areas that involve safety, well, terrible things can happen.
A new report shows Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) officials are concerned about how oversight efforts for Southwest Airlines are being handled.
Robert Alexander/Getty Images
Southwest may have a security issue
The safety concerns came to light after the Wall Street Journal gained access to internal FAA documents.
“About three-quarters of respondents said the culture at the FAA’s Dallas-area office, which oversees the Southwest, has not improved in recent years after concerns were raised about oversight of the airline, according to an internal survey report in November . Some respondents have questioned the bureau’s commitment to security, the documents show,” the newspaper reported.
Several federal agencies, including the Department of Transportation’s inspector general, the Senate Commerce Committee, and an examiner from the FAA agency, have documented concerns about the FAA’s handling of Southwest in recent years.
The airline answered the concerns in a statement to the Journal.
“Southwest fosters a culture of compliance and recognizes the safety of our operations as the most important thing we do, and any suggestion that we would tolerate relaxing standards is unfounded,” said a Southwest spokeswoman.
Southwest had a max problem
Southwest was hit hard in 2021 when the FAA Boeings (B.A) – Get a free report on the 737 Max after two planes of this model crashed (neither were associated with the airline).
The landing followed two crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia that killed a total of 346 people. The cause of the crashes was traced to a faulty software system that made it impossible for the pilots to control the planes.
Southwest began returning its 737 Max aircraft in March 2021, becoming the last major airline to do so. After extensive testing, the FAA approved the aircraft for flight in November 2021.
At the time of the grounding, Southwest had more 737 Max aircraft in its fleet or on order than any other airline.