The Federal Aviation Administration was slammed in an official watchdog report over its lax evaluation methods in air carrier risk assessments.
It relates to a probe into Southwest Airlines which allowed 17.2 million passengers fly on Boeing 737 jets without fully verified maintenance records, and highlighted ‘a number of concerns.’
The US Transportation Department Inspector General’s final report also called into question Southwest’s safety culture.
"FAA has not provided inspectors with guidance on how to review risk assessments or how to evaluate and oversee a carrier’s safety culture. As a result, FAA cannot provide assurance that the carrier operates at the highest degree of safety in the public’s interest," it said.
"Given the significant unresolved safety concerns that FAA has identified at Southwest Airlines, it is clear that the agency is not yet effectively navigating the balance between industry collaboration and managing safety risks at the carrier,"
The airline took issue with the ‘unsubstantiated references to Southwest’s safety culture.’
Southwest said it has fixed problems with how it records weight estimates and has conducted extensive maintenance work on most of the 88 used planes with unchecked maintenance records.
The others currently remain out of service.
Details of the report were first leaked to the media last month.
The IG made 11 recommendations which the FAA agreed to implement in full.
The problems first came to light after a whistle blower informed the Inspector General.
