Southwest Airlines faces FAA audit over string of near-miss incidents

The Federal Aviation Administration said Tuesday it was placing Southwest Airlines under a heightened safety review after a string of recent near-miss safety incidents involving the low-cost carrier.

In a statement, the agency said it was increasing oversight of Southwest ‘to ensure it is complying with federal safety regulations.’

“Safety will drive the timeline,” the agency said.

The development comes amid ongoing jitters about the state of U.S. aviation first sparked in January, when a door panel on a Boeing-manufactured aircraft blew out midair. That incident prompted the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation of Boeing, and led to the ouster of its leadership. A planned rollout of Boeing’s latest-generation 737 Max line was also suspended.

Since then, United Airlines announced in March an independent review of its safety measures following its own near-miss incidents. In May, the U.S. Transportation Department Office of Inspector General said it would audit the FAA’s oversight of United Airlines maintenance practices — the fifth-such OIG report following ones scrutinizing the FAA’s oversight of Allegiant, American, SkyWest and Southwest airlines’ maintenance practices.

Last week, a global IT outage linked to an update of Microsoft Windows by the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike grounded flights worldwide, leaving thousands of passengers stranded. By Wednesday, Delta Air Lines said it was still working to recover from the issue.

The FAA did not specify which incidents had prompted its latest audit announcement about Southwest.

But in April, a flight departing from Honolulu come within 400 feet of slamming into the ocean after what appeared to be an instance of pilot error. No one was injured and the plane eventually landed safely.

Details of the incident were first reported in June by Bloomberg News.

In a statement following the Bloomberg report, Southwest said ‘the event was addressed appropriately as we always strive for continuous improvement.”

As news of the Hawaii incident emerged last month, new reports surfaced of a ‘Dutch roll’ incident — said to mimic a famous Dutch ice skating tactic — on a flight from Phoenix to Oakland that caused a significant rocking motion midair.

A subsequent investigation revealed damage to both a backup power unit as well as ‘structural components’ in a way that appeared to be unique to Southwest.

“Other airlines have not reported similar issues,” the FAA said at the time.

Within days of the Dutch roll incident, reports emerged of a Southwest flight that triggered a low-altitude alert over Oklahoma City.

And prior to the FAA’s audit announcement this week, the agency said it had begun investigating an incident involving a Southwest flight departing from Columbus, Ohio, bound for Tampa that flew as low as 150 feet over Florida waters and resulted in an emergency landing in Fort Lauderdale.

In a statement Tuesday, Southwest said it was working closely with the FAA as the agency undertakes its new review, and that it had formed a new team of experts to bolster its safety management system.

‘Nothing is more important to Southwest than the safety of our customers and employees,’ it said.

Appearing with NBC News anchor and senior Washington correspondent Hallie Jackson on Tuesday, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg indicated there is no reason to believe it is unsafe to fly Southwest. But he said that while U.S. commercial aviation remains the safest in the world, ‘we’ve got to keep it that way.’