FAA may have ignored Southwest violations

After last month’s grounding of Southwest planes for safety issues, it became clear that we may have a new reason to fear flying. And now the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) may have just confirmed this concern.

At a congressional hearing on Thursday, FAA inspectors testified that the agency not only let Southwest Airlines fly uninspected planes, but also that the airline continued to fly the planes even after cracks had been discovered.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, the FAA was overdue on 21 inspections for Southwest, with five being more than eight years old. How is this even possible when people’s lives are on the line? Yet the FAA maintains that although there are issues which need to be addressed, airline safety has improved drastically in the last 10 years.

For all the excuses and newfound promises of changing safety priorities given by the FAA, read today’s New York Times article.