A few months ago when CNN put this salacious headline up “Southwest Airlines Flies Unsafe Planes” — I did a post asking “Where was the Beef” of the story? What other airlines had issues, what was the relationship between inspectors and airlines etc — obviously useful reporting was less important than a juicy headline. Well! Today the “Beef” has landed! According to an article in the Wall St. Journal, the Federal Aviation Administration “failed to perform more than 100 recommended safety reviews at major airlines in recent years.”

No, it wasn’t just American (which had to cancel more than 1,000 flights when the FAA said it had to undergo previously “missed” inspections); among those on the list of missed inspections are US Airways, United, Alaska and more.

The Wall St. Journal indicates none of these missed reviews suggest “imminent safety hazards” but still…100+ missed reviews?

American Airlines can quit fiddling around the edges of saying it wasn’t all their fault that hundreds of thousands of passengers and their families were recently left in the lurch — C’mon, Let’s be honest here, the FAA over-corrected in an attempt to save face and callously left passengers holding the bag — American just happened to be at the front of a long line when the fit hit the shan.

I suppose these other airlines that had missed inspections are going to now be hit with whopping fines similar to Southwest?

It appears the FAA inspection “deadlines” appear to be more like “guidelines” ….