Comments on: Southwest Agrees to Steep Penalties Over Maintenance Problems

By: Hank Roberts

Hank Roberts — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 06:26:48 +0000

Gad, imagine if we had something like the FAA’s inspection and maintenance requirements for the banking industry.

By: ginandtacos.com » Blog Archive » THE MARK OF QUALITY

ginandtacos.com » Blog Archive » THE MARK OF QUALITY — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 04:02:12 +0000

[...] you don't have a choice – only Southwest refuses to use regional feeders, and they have their own maintenance issues – and the industry goes to great lengths to conceal this information. Free Markets may be the [...]

By: CF

CF — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 05:52:26 +0000

Jim Carmignani – Last time I checked, fatality count was not exactly the only way to measure safety. There are always problems and any airline that thinks there’s no way to improve safety is making a huge mistake. There is always a way to improve safety.

By: Anon Coward

Anon Coward — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 01:29:23 +0000

Adding checkpoints is not smoke and mirrors. It’s governance that is needed in an industry that has proven that it will cut corners regardless of consequences.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 20:36:35 +0000

You made a good point of saying this is just an increase in oversight. A classic example of adding inspection instead of mistake-proofing the processes. They are just hoping more inspection will catch a future problem. Smoke and mirrors….

By: Jim Carmignani

Jim Carmignani — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 20:23:09 +0000

How can they get any safer? 1 fatalilty in their entire history and you write a ridiculous sentence like “Will Southwest be safer in the long run? Probably…” Speaking of overkill.

By: John M.

John M. — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 18:33:32 +0000

I’m sure there’s some kind of overkill factor built into the inspection schedules. If you really need to inspect a plane every 3 years to keep it safe, the rules probably say to do it every 2 years or something like that. I’m betting Southwest was just intruding into the overkill rather than actually approaching the interval where safety would be in question.