Federal officials say that Southwest Airlines and the union representing its pilots have resisted cooperating with investigations into accidents and other incidents and pushed to close the matters quickly.
FILE - Southwest Airlines planes at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix, July 17, 2019. In one instance disclosed Wednesday, July 27, 2022, the Federal Aviation Administration cut short an investigation of a 2019 incident in Connecticut even though the agency determined that there was pilot error. –
The FAA said Southwest and union officials resisted interviews with agency representatives in that and other cases. Sometimes the delaying tactics worked. An investigation into why pilots placed duct tape over sensors outside a plane before a flight fizzled when the FAA employee took another job.
In a response to the special counsel's office, the FAA said it found “mismanagement and lack of oversight” by the office monitoring Southwest that has persisted despite management and staff changes over the years. The FAA said new executives will provide “a fresh opportunity to evaluate” the oversight of Southwest.
. In more than half of those cases, the airline found that the planes had undergone repair work that wasn't documented or couldn't be verified.The FAA said some of the whistleblower allegations couldn't be proven, including a claim that Southwest routinely assigns too much work for mechanics to handle.
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