The federal Office of Special Counsel says the FAA likely gave Southwest Airlines special treatment to speed up approval process for the airline’s launch of Hawaii flights.
A whistleblower complaint was lodged accusing the agency of ‘gross mismanagement and an abuse of authority’ in aiding the airline, the Wall St Journal reports.
The Office of Special Counsel ‘found a substantial likelihood of wrongdoing’ by FAA officials.
The whistleblower said that FAA managers cut corners by using FAA employees who didn’t have the necessary 737 pilot licenses and had less knowledge about Southwest than local FAA inspectors.
It relates to the special ETOPS certification which allows airlines to fly for extended periods over water.
This was initially held up for more than a month by the partial government shutdown.
The complaint says FAA managers then put pressure on workers to speed up the process.
"Our quest for achieving authorization was a 14-month deliberate and stringent process that followed all FAA guidance for establishing a program that fully satisfies each of the certification requirements and unequivocally adheres to all FAA regulations," the airline said.
"FAA oversight of the process was equally thorough and stringent."
