ATW Daily News

FAA: Southwest operating 40-plus 737s with uncertified parts

Thursday August 27, 2009

Southwest Airlines and US FAA officials met yesterday to discuss an agency inspector's recent discovery that SWA is operating more than 40 737s with parts produced by an uncertified vendor, a finding that led to the Aug. 22 grounding of the aircraft from early morning to 3 p.m.

"FAA, Boeing and Southwest all agreed [by the afternoon of Aug. 22 that] our aircraft were safe to operate with the parts as they were," an SWA spokesperson told ATWOnline. The agency confirmed to this website that use of the parts does not create an immediate safety issue, but added that permission granted to the airline to continue operating the 737s is for 10 days only, giving SWA a brief reprieve to find a more permanent solution.

The parts in question are exhaust gate assembly hinge fittings, which deflect engine exhaust from wing flaps. A maintenance company that neither FAA nor SWA identified apparently replaced the parts with hinge fittings produced by a vendor that has not gained FAA certification for the parts. The issue was first revealed by The Wall Street Journal late Tuesday.

SWA's latest confrontation with FAA comes fewer than six months after it agreed to pay a $7.5 million fine to settle an enforcement action stemming from operating 46 737 Classics for nine days in March 2007 after it had disclosed to the agency that the aircraft were in noncompliance with an airworthiness directive (ATWOnline, March 3). Disclosure of that episode led to allegations that FAA inspectors in Dallas were too "cozy" with SWA.

by Christine Boynton and Aaron Karp

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