The Federal Aviation Administration has reassigned three senior managers from the office which oversees Southwest Airlines, after investigations into claims of lax safety enforcement.
The Transportation Department’s inspector-general is scrutinizing various safety management issues and the relationship between FAA officers and the airline according to people familiar with the matter.
Allegations of safety enforcement lapses had been raised by agency whistleblowers
The managers were removed in part due to retaliation against the whistleblowers, these people said.
An FAA spokesman acknowledged the reassignments and is committed to ‘improve the FAA organization’s overall performance to meet our critical safety mission.’
"To uphold these principles, we take appropriate action as necessary."
Southwest is fully cooperating with the inspector-general’s investigation.
"We remain absolutely confident that our maintenance procedures ensure the airworthiness of our aircraft," the airline said.
Part of the probe looked at systematic errors with Southwest’s pre-flight weight calculations of luggage.
Inspector-general investigators are expected to complete a comprehensive report on the FAA’s oversight of Southwest by early next year.
