Glare on Southwest highlights tense relationship between management, mechanics

Reuters May 5, 2018

By Alana Wise and David Shepardson

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal investigators were assigned last year to monitor Southwest Airlines' maintenance operations, the Federal Aviation Administration said on Friday, after whistleblower complaints of mistreatment of mechanics raised safety concerns.

The agency found no rule violations, it said, and the assignment of additional inspectors was standard practice to preclude any deterioration in maintenance.

The FAA issued a statement on the incident as investigations continue on last month's midair engine fan blade blowout on a Southwest plane that killed a passenger. The two incidents are unrelated.

The FAA, which oversees U.S. civil aviation, investigated Southwest in 2017 after employee reports that airline management had discouraged maintenance workers from reporting mechanical issues.

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