FAA Auditing Southwest Airlines After Safety Incidents

The aviation industry is taking a big hit amid recent developments. While fliers have been concerned for some time, a new string of events has been negatively impacting airlines. First, the Boeing manufacturing issues put passenger safety at risk; now, operations are even in question. The global IT outage of last week has put another layer of pressure on manufacturers, airlines, and even airports. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) auditing Southwest Airlines may not come as a surprise to some fliers, however, the airline has been having incidents lately.

Why Is The FAA Auditing Southwest Airlines?

Southwest Airlines is facing an audit from the FAA after several incidents in the last few months. People have even raised eyebrows at a pretty recent safety situation when one of the company’s aircraft was caught flying dangerously close to the ground. This incident happened on July 14, with a plane approaching the Tampa International Airport. Less than five miles from the runway a Southwest plane flew as low as 150 feet above the ground. The pilots’ low altitude was only corrected once an air traffic controller alerted the crew. Although the FAA has not confirmed the exact incident that prompted the investigation, this close call was a startling example of why the FAA has set its sights on auditing the airline.

The low-cost airline is beginning internal analysis to identify issues that may have led to the recent safety incidents. Although the FAA was likely already keeping tabs on Southwest since it had already begun several investigations into Southwest’s incidents, some travelers assume the Tampa incident was the last straw. There have been Southwest aircraft incidents in both May and June. A similar, yet more dangerous situation occurred in April. An aircraft departing Honolulu nearly slammed into the ocean since it was only 400 feet from the water. The plane later landed safely but the incident was determined to be a pilot error. This FAA audit should help the company improve its safety management systems.

Aviation Safety

Among the current operation system issues and the domino effect that has had on the aviation industry, it is of the utmost importance for travelers to feel safe. The FAA is a regulating administration that will hopefully restore flight safety. The Justice Department’s criminal investigation of Boeing has enough on people’s minds. This ongoing situation could certainly impact people planning to travel with the airline, so hopefully, standards will be brought up to par quickly.