The issue over incomplete or never performed FAA required inspections that surfaced last month with Southwest Airlines has spread to other U.S. carriers. In the last few weeks, as the FAA airline oversight problem has attracted national media and congressional attention, airlines such as Delta, Alaska, Midwest, and now American, have canceled thousands of flights as they scramble to review their maintenance programs to insure they have followed every FAA inspection mandate to the finest detail. As the mainstream media makes it sound as if this is a major safety issue, the already financially pummeled airlines have to take it on the chin, losing millions of dollars as aircraft are pulled from service and upset passengers are compensated for their delayed or canceled flights. 

But just as I speculated in my blog entry about Southwest Airlines last month when this whole thing hit the news, this is not a major safety issue, but instead an FAA oversight issue.  The FAA has the tough task of not only providing oversight and regulation to the airline industry, but also promoting U.S. airlines as the most efficient and safest air travel system in the world. Sometimes these goals directly oppose one another.  Since the allegations by FAA whistle blowers that FAA inspectors were getting too cozy with the airlines they are suppose to be regulating, all the airlines are trying to insure that they haven't missed anything in their inspection programs. As for the case of American Airlines and wiring issues with their MD-80 aircraft, once again as I suspected, it is not a major safety issue, but an interpretation issue of how to do a particular inspection. Check out this explanation in this entry from The Cranky Flier blog. 

Let's face it, the FAA probably releases hundreds of inspection requirements every year, most for very minor issues on aircraft. The airline maintenance organizations have to comply with these requirements, no question, but I'm sure that many of these, such as the MD-80 wiring issue, are open to some interpretation, and sometimes common sense has to prevail. Unfortunately, the FAA doesn't have enough personnel to insure that every plane at every airline is inspected exactly the same way. They have to rely on the maintenance experts at the airlines, working in conjunction with the engineers at the airframers, to insure that the airplanes are safe to fly. I have no problem with that, because I really think no rational airline or airframer would purposely overlook a safety issue just to save a few bucks. The consequences of a major accident resulting from such actions would be so extreme, from the media and public backlash to financial ruin, that its just not worth it. Let's hope the FAA and the airlines can work out a reasonable compromise on maintenance and inspection programs so the U.S public can regain their trust in both organizations.