Southwest Airlines today said it "temporarily" removed 38 aircraft from service for inspections amid Federal Aviation Administration allegations that the carrier had failed to complete airworthiness inspections. With those planes grounded, Southwest said it canceled 4 percent of its schedule today.
(Update, March 13, 2008:Southwest Resumes Normal Flight Operations)
"A portion of the aircraft have been inspected, cleared and returned to service," Southwest said in a statement today. "The airline expects to have all of these aircraft inspected by early this evening."
Southwest said it also would continue its internal review of maintenance programs, which it said "could potentially create other operational changes if the airline needs to swap or reroute aircraft as the internal investigation and audit unfolds."
FAA this month proposed to fine the carrier $10.2 million, saying the airline between June 2006 and March 2007 operated aircraft that hadn't been inspected for fuselage cracks in accordance with FAA regulations. Southwest said a total of 44 aircraft were affected by the FAA audit, of which one already has been retired from its fleet and five currently were under scheduled maintenance, leaving 38 to be grounded today.