Corrosion found on Southwest Boeing aircrafts has become a safety concern. An aircraft, like any metal object, is inherently prone to corrosion. There is a lot of time spent painting an aircraft to help delay corrosion, but inevitably, nature will prevail. Usually, the development of corrosion will depend on how old the aircraft is, what type of environment it is based on, whether or not it is hangared, and how often it is cleaned. Left untreated, corrosion can make an aircraft unairworthy in just a few years.
Now the Federal Aviation Administration and Southwest Airlines recognize safety compromised by Southwest coercive treatment of aircraft technicians.
FAA investigators have determined that Southwest Airlines Co. (“Southwest”) suffers from a degraded supervisory maintenance culture.
On-time performance of an airline or keeping an aircraft safe, what is more important? For US-based Southwest Airlines, it may have been cheaper to overlook serious maintenance issues, getting upset at technician alerting Southwest Airline management to such safety concerns.
Click here to read the explosive report on Aviation.travel and read court documents, testimonials, and depositions linked from the aviation.travel article.
