Under pressure from an increasingly activist Congress, the US FAA has been on an inspection blitz which has disrupted operations at the nation's largest airline, American Airlines, and threatens to spread chaos through the system as the summer season approaches.
In mid-April American had to cancel some 3,000 Boeing MD-80 flights for re-inspection of wiring in the aircraft wheel wells, stranding about a quarter of a million flyers. The FAA began its crackdown after it emerged in early March it had allowed Southwest Airlines to fly older Boeing 737s well past required inspections, with the apparent compliance of FAA inspectors assigned to the Dallas-based carrier.
The FAA responded with heightened inspections, which will last through June.
In several hearings, the Congress heard testimony in April from FAA whistleblowers and others that FAA had ignored warnings about the Southwest aircraft and that its inspections and re-inspections at American were needed. Some argued that the FAA was overreacting. But Transportation Department inspector general Calvin Scovel, decrying "a pattern of excessive leniency" on the part of the FAA, responded: "What we have seen from the FAA on too many occasions is, you just put in a wink and nod instead of a demonstration of true will."
American says the cancellations cost the carrier well into the "tens of millions of dollars". American's chief executive, Gerard Arpey, repeatedly and "profoundly apologised".
Source: Airline Business
