Gary Kelly changes his tune at Southwest

The CEO of the suddenly troubled Southwest Airlines is no longer saying “don’t look here.” Instead, he is hiring an outside consultant. That’s after an initial internal investigation told him things weren’t so rosy:

Kelly said he doesn't like what he's seen so far from an internal investigation that began on Friday. In particular, he said he was “concerned with some of our findings” about how Southwest handles so-called airworthiness directives and other regulations.

Southwest has also placed three unnamed managers on leave, as I suggested yesterday that Kelly needed to do.

Besides Kelly’s findings about Southwest’s handling of government regs, somebody at Southwest also found some bad planes. Southwest has reportedly grounded 42 of its jets.

Somehow, I don’t think it’s going to do any protesting of the Federal Aviation Administration’s $10.2 million fine.

Something else tells me that Southwest is going to trot out a massive PR campaign soon. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Mr. Southwest himself, Herb Kelleher, used to cut TV spots.