Congress wants FAA to look anew at Southwest

The football-sized hole in the fuselage of a Southwest Airlines flight July 14, opening up in flight, is going to probably become more of a problem for Southwest.

This incident follows on a $7.5 million fine from the Federal Aviation Adminstration in March, for failing to inspect fuselage cracks.

And, because of that, and perhaps because of Southwest’s attempts to shrug this new incident off, Congress is leaning on the FAA to have a new look-see at Southwest.

And, independent safety experts are concerned, too.

“It does seems like fatigue to me, based on what I’ve learned,” said Fred Mirgle, chairman of the aviation maintenance science area of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University . “I don’t think Southwest is an unsafe airline, but they’ve had some issues. I hope the FAA gets to the bottom of what caused this.”

Embry-Riddle is one of the top half-dozen or so aeronautics schools in the country, so this is a real expert talking.

Wonder how Southwest’s stock is doing today? Probably not so good.

I’m not going to say the current top management team at Southwest, with Herb Kelleher now fully retired, is bad, or that it was bad even when Herb started stepping away, one position at a time.

But, nobody there has his pizzazz now. And, pizzazz can sometimes cover a world of sins.

Or, if used more positively, it can be creative enough to think up a good, and razzle-dazzle, response to a discovered world of sins. And, ever since Southwest’s problems with the FAA first came out, the company’s been a bit behind the PR curve.

Now, it may be a whole turn behind the curve.