Southwest Airlines 10.2 Million Fine Draws More Doubt About U.S. Airline Safety

The airline industry in America was fairly regulated until 1978, when sweeping reforms were passed to streamline airline routes and service and to allow for more flexibility. By itself, it wasn't a bad move. With some tweaking the original goals could have been met without all of the chaos that has since plagued the airlines. Spikes in fuel prices and the inability for some carriers to adapt led to names that had become synonymous with air travel falling away. They were joined by dozens of upstarts and also-rans. Some of the new starters made it, and are still around today. One of the best known of the up and comers has been Southwest Airlines.

Touted as the low price airline that provided good service, Southwest grew into a big player. Kind of the "Wal-Mart of the air," Southwest served markets under-served and in doing so did quite well. Of course, the reality isn't quite as rosy. Just like Wal-Mart, Southwest has a dirty underbelly. Low pay and for employees and "peanut" flights. And the tendency to sometimes cut corners. I worked in the airline business back in the 90's and remember Southwest having a bit of a cheater's reputation. Tricks like pulling a gate a few inches away from a plane and then pushing the aircraft a few inches back to get an "on time departure." Still, they did emerge as the model for low price carriers.

Now comes the news that they were doing what should be the unthinkable in the airline business. Not only did they not do required checks on aircraft in a timely manner, they kept come some of them flying even after they knew about the violations. The FAA announced a huge fine, 10.2 million dollars. And now comes news that some in the FAA knew about it, and allowed the planes to continue to fly. If that assertion proves to be true it makes one wonder. Were there payoffs? Is Southwest a big Bush donor? Who knows.