Running head: Federal Aviation Administrations
Oversight Functions
Introduction
           The case of Southwest Airlines came to light after two
whistle blowers came forward to reveal a number of discrepancies that were
taking place under the auspices of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Testimonies by the two employees of FAA to the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee
(HTIC) unearthed serious lapses of inspection by the agency in maintaining
statutory inspection checks on most aircrafts. A number of planes continued to
fly despite being out of compliance with federal civil aviation regulations.
Not only was the FAA aware of this but that it did nothing to address the
situation, allowing the airline to fly its planes as usual and schedule
inspection at its own convenience. The
risk to the passengers being carried in those planes was very high and the only
plausible reason that the FAA would agree to such an arrangement was that there
was some sort of benefit that they were receiving from the management. When
revelations broke about Southwest, a number of other airlines grounded their
planes for inspection and routine maintenance checks. This goes to show that
the malaise affected the whole industry and not just Southwest. The chairman of
the HITC noted that the mission statement of the FAA placed the airlines as
their customers rather than the passengers. He wryly commented that the reason
the agency charged with safeguarding the safety of aviation was so lax was that
it got its priorities wrong. Passengers on the planes are the chief clients of
the FAA as they rely on that body to ensure that all the planes are airworthy
to fly operate in the skies.
