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Southwest Airlines Co., already under scrutiny for failing to check jets for fuselage cracks, may have flown 70 planes for at least a year without rudder-control inspections, a congressman said.
It is ''the most serious lapse of safety I have observed'' at the Federal Aviation Administration in more than 20 years, Rep. James Oberstar, chairman of the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said in Washington.
Oberstar, D-Minn., spoke a day after the FAA proposed a $10.2 million fine against Dallas-based Southwest for flying 46 planes without fuselage inspections. Some of the same jets not reviewed for cracks may have also not gotten the rudder checks, he said Friday.
Oberstar's allegation of a second possible safety violation raises the prospect of another proposed fine at Southwest, the largest discount carrier, and adds to the political pressure on aviation regulators to tighten industry oversight.
Southwest missed a requirement by Boeing Co., the maker of the 737 planes the carrier flies, to check a rudder control unit, not an FAA directive, the airline said in a statement.
''We've got a 37-year history of very safe operations, one of the safest operations in the world, and we're safer today than we've ever been,'' Southwest Chief Executive Officer Gary Kelly said in the statement.
The FAA is conducting a second investigation of Southwest, Peggy Gilligan, an agency associate deputy administrator, said on a conference call Friday. She declined to give details, saying it was too early in the probe.
''Complacency has likely set in at the highest levels of FAA,'' Oberstar said at a news conference. ''We've seen the pendulum swing away from vigorous enforcement of compliance toward a carrier-favorable, cozy relationship with the airlines.''
The proposed fine for the missed crack inspections is the largest ever sought by the FAA against an airline. Southwest allegedly made 1,451 flights after it disclosed the lapse, the most egregious part of its violation, the agency said.
Southwest continued to fly with the knowledge of an FAA supervisor, though the planes should have been grounded, Oberstar said.
When Southwest acknowledged missing the inspections - and then went on to keep flying the planes - the airline's disclosure statement was signed by an employee who previously worked for the FAA, said Clay Foushee, an investigator on Oberstar's staff.
Southwest may have also flown some of its 737s after disclosing rudder-check failures, Oberstar said. The rudder is a part of the vertical tail fin and is used to turn the nose of planes left and right.
Southwest was due in 2004 for an audit of its system for complying with FAA directives and didn't get that review until 2007, Oberstar said.
According to Oberstar, agency whistle-blowers said they had been complaining for almost three years that Southwest's compliance system was ''inconsistent and unreliable.''
An FAA supervisor repeatedly rejected attempts to initiate a strong enforcement action, Oberstar said. The whistle-blowers were ignored when they tried to alert senior managers, he said.