![]() I have thus determined that the agency's findings appear reasonable. “I appreciate FAA taking these allegations seriously and incorporating the recommended actions swiftly, including by replacing senior leadership at the Southwest Airlines Certificate Management Office. “I thank the whistleblowers for raising these serious allegations about FAA's oversight of Southwest Airlines," said Special Counsel Henry J. In response to this finding, FAA implemented several corrective actions to better manage and communicate with FAA designees responsible for inspections. Nevertheless, the agency found that FAA officials declined to take immediate action to ensure the airworthiness of the remaining aircraft, and instead allowed Southwest to perform additional risk assessments to verify their safety. The inspectors discovered that Southwest had not followed these established procedures with dozens of their Skyline fleet.īy 2019, Southwest had performed comprehensive inspections of 39 of the foreign-purchased aircraft and found that 62% had undocumented, nonconforming, or unverified repairs. Every aircraft must also undergo an inspection by an approved source. commercial service must certify to the FAA that the aircraft are airworthy, that maintenance records comply with FAA standards, and that all relevant airworthiness directives have been met. USA TODAY 0:00 0:49 Southwest Airlines lost 100 million in revenue after an accident that produced its first-ever passenger fatality in April. Carriers who purchase foreign-registered aircraft for use in U.S. The FAA also substantiated the whistleblowers' allegation that agency officials wrongfully permitted Southwest to fly 49 foreign-purchased Skyline aircraft without verifying that they conformed to FAA standards. In response to these findings, FAA carried out recommended corrective actions including robust training for all personnel and development of a regular audit to ensure compliance with FAA's aviation safety program guidance. Multiple reports were expedited in this fashion, despite evidence that the events demonstrated “an intentional disregard for safety." FAA determined that Southwest and union officials resisted its requests for additional investigation and pushed for quick closures, contrary to program criteria. Yet, the report was closed without further investigation by FAA's Event Review Committee, despite an ongoing investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board. The next most recent 747 event was an October 2000 Singapore Airlines accident in Taipei that killed 79 passengers and four crew members. This was the 26th fatal event involving the Boeing 747. airline fleets at the time of this event was 24 years. They alleged that FAA, with influence from Southwest, fast-tracked reports on dangerous incidents involving pilot error at the Bradley, Burbank, and Philadelphia airports.įor example, FAA determined that pilot error caused a February 2019 accident involving a flight that suffered damage to both wings while attempting to land at the Bradley International Airport in Connecticut. According to the FAA, the average age of Boeing 747-200 and 747-300 models in U.S. The allegations were brought to OSC by an Aviation Safety Inspector and three other whistleblowers. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) has alerted the President and Congress that an investigation by the Department of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), revealed inadequate safety reports on major incidents caused by pilot error and failed to properly inspect foreign-purchased aircraft for Southwest Airlines (Southwest). ![]() AirlineRatings found that a Qantas 737 pilot must undergo a six day course ahead of returning to the skies, including a day focused on wellbeing.The U.S. ![]() “The challenge this year was the number of airlines that were flying, although our Top 20 safest airlines have all continued to fly or had limited cessation of flights,” AirlineRatings editor-in-chief Geoffrey Thomas tells CNN Travel.įor 2021, the airline safety and product review website awarded Aussie airline Qantas the top spot.ĪirlineRatings highlighted Qantas’ commitment to retraining pilots ahead of a return to service after time out during the pandemic. On an incidents-per-flight basis, Southwest ranks as the safest of the. As of Wednesday, more than 2,500 Southwest flights were canceled after roughly 5,600 cancellations across Monday and Tuesday. There may have been far fewer airplanes in the skies this past year, but if you’re looking ahead to future travel, you might take heed of the latest rankings of the world’s safest airlines from .Ī keeps tabs on 385 carriers from across the globe, measuring factors including the airlines’ crash and serious incident records, and age of their aircraft. If, before belting-in, they had consulted the latest safety rankings, theyd have seen that Southwests record is exemplary. Southwest had canceled more than 60 of its flights this week.
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