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The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the groundings were safety-related but would not elaborate. Last week, the FAA proposed a record $10.2 million fine in connection with the missed inspections.
Meanwhile, at least one consumer activist is calling for a boycott of Southwest and a federal investigation of the incident.
The persons that should be flying Southwest at this point, should be only those referred by Doctor Kevorkian," said John J. Tormey III, an attorney and founder of a Rockland County, N.Y. group that opposes further development of airline traffic in the outlying New York suburb.
"Although the depraved Southwest spin-machine audaciously assures us Southwests six (6) cracked-fuselage aircraft were 'never a safety problem,' Southwest should tell that to the victims of the 1988 Aloha Airlines disaster," Tormey said.
In that incident, metal fatigue on an aging Boeing 737 caused 18 feet of fuselage to be ripped off the plane. A flight attendant was swept out of the plane and killed and several passengers and crew members were injured.
In a statement, company CEO Gary Kelly said Southwest would make any changes necessary to assure that the airline is in full compliance with FAA Airworthiness Directives and all of its own maintenance programs, policies, and procedures.
"Upon learning last month of an investigation with respect to our handling of this inspection and an Airworthiness Directive, I immediately ordered an independent and comprehensive investigation by outside counsel," Kelly said.
Southwest faces a possible $10.2 million fine after the FAA cited the discount carrier for failing to inspect some of their planes for structural cracks. Specifically, the FAA maintains that the airline continued to use planes after it missed a mandatory deadline to have them inspected.
The inspections were ordered to look for structural cracks in the fuselage of the Boeing 737 aircraft Southwest uses.
Southwest initially said the missed inspections were an oversight, and after discovering the error, quickly re-inspected all the aircraft for cracks. It says the inspections were mostly routine and redundant and that flight safety was never compromised.
The FAA-mandated inspections are designed to find tiny cracks in an aircraft's fuselage before they can get bigger and compromise the structural integrity of the plane. Since a modern jetliner may be used for 30 years or more, these inspections are supposed to find the kinds of problems than can occur as an aircraft ages.
Kelly says Southwest stepped up its own internal probe last week after the airline received details from the FAA's letter of civil penalty. On March 10, Kelly said he was given preliminary findings from the internal investigation.
"I am concerned with some of our findings as to our controls over procedures within our maintenance airworthiness directive and regulatory compliance processes," Kelly said. "I have insisted that we have the appropriate maintenance organizational and governance structure in place to ensure that the right decision
