Southwest et FAA

Southwest aurait fait appel a un fournisseur de pièces non OEM et "unautorized" sur 46 737 classic.
La FAA ausculte l'affaire

L'histoire sur le Dallasnews :

Eric Torbenson/Reporter

The Federal Aviation Administration is examining whether a third-party vendor for Southwest Airlines put what the FAA calls 'unauthorized' parts on 46 Boeing 737-300s and 737-500s.
The investigation prompted Southwest to ground the planes on Saturday while awaiting a ruling from the FAA about whether the issue was serious enough to require immediate attention, the FAA says.

The investigation - first reported tonight by those crafty guys over at the Wall Street Journal -- is ongoing and it's too early to say whether it'll involve any penalties for Dallas-based Southwest, but remember that Southwest and the FAA reached a deal in March where Southwest paid $7.5 million and promised to perform a lot better in the area of maintenance. Unclear what could happen to that settlement if the investigation on this incident involves a penalty of some sort.

Read more about it tomorrow in our print edition. Southwest says it's all about paperwork and how its contractor went about doing repairs on the area affected which is under the wing -- these are hinges that help direct engine thrust away from wing flaps that are in question.

August hasn't been a great month for Southwest.

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Le procédé de "Volontary disclosure" ne semble pas avoir fonctionné.

SWA n'aurait pas joué le jeu ?

Quelques lignes sur Flight :

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Compliance challenges continue to hover over Southwest Airlines two years after missed fuselage inspections triggered an almost $8 million fine against the carrier.

The fall-out from the episode revealed blatant abuse of the FAA's voluntary disclosure programme on both sides, leading to a top-down review of the airworthiness directive compliance programmes, and an acknowledgement that complexity needs to be eliminated from the process.

Et un autre article un peu moins récent, juste un peu moins :

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Two years after an investigation into the blatant abuse of voluntary disclosure by the US Federal Aviation
Administration and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], the FAA has ushered in a philosophy change to dissolve any notion that
airlines are the agency's customers.

Evidence supporting that new philosophy is most clear in the number of fines issued against carriers this year alone.

The FAA has proposed a total of roughly $8 million in fines against American Airlines, American Eagle and Delta Air Lines.

The carrier also aims to fine repair station GE Caledonian $1.2 million for performing improper maintenance procedures.

While some of the fines were borne out of violations that occurred several years ago and took time to adjudicate, the events of April 2008 and the new mindset of FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt have resulted in the agency creating new levels of accountability to eradicate the cozy relationships US legislators accused the FAA of having with carriers in the aftermath of Southwest operating 55,971 flights with 46 aircraft, without completing required checks for fuselage cracks.