US FAA boosts Southwest Airlines oversight, launches review By Reuters

By David Shepardson and Rajesh Kumar Singh

(Reuters) -The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is launching a security evaluation of Southwest Airways (NYSE:) after a collection of near-miss incidents together with some that raised critical issues, the airline stated on Tuesday.

The evaluation prompted by a number of security incidents is uncommon however in March the FAA stated it was initiating a proper analysis of United Airways to make sure the Chicago-based service was complying with security laws and the FAA imposed some restrictions on United.

Southwest confirmed the FAA security evaluation on Tuesday and stated it’s working intently with the company on its analysis of latest occasions. The service famous it lately shaped a devoted workforce of subject-matter consultants, leaders, union companions, and the FAA to bolster its present security administration system.

“This group is tasked with performing an in-depth, data-driven evaluation to establish any alternatives for enchancment,” Southwest stated.

The FAA stated on Saturday it was investigating a July 14 Southwest Airways flight after it flew at a really low altitude over Tampa Bay, Florida. The flight was roughly 4.8 miles from the Tampa airport when it dropped to as little as about 150 ft, in line with Flightradar24 information.

The FAA confirmed it had launched the protection analysis. The FAA has elevated oversight of Southwest Airways to make sure it’s complying with federal security laws,” the company stated. “Security will drive the timeline.”

The Tampa flight was the most recent in a string of Southwest incidents which have raised security issues, together with a Southwest 737 flight in April that got here inside about 400 ft (122 meters) of the ocean off Hawaii after the primary officer inadvertently pushed ahead on the management column and the aircraft hit a most descent fee of about 4,400 ft per minute.

The FAA can be investigating one other very low altitude Southwest flight about 9 miles (14.5 km) from the Oklahoma Metropolis, Oklahoma, airport that had departed from Las Vegas dropped to about 500 ft.

The U.S. Nationwide Transportation Security Board and FAA are additionally investigating a Southwest 737 MAX flight on Might 25 that skilled a “Dutch roll” at 34,000 ft whereas en route from Phoenix, Arizona, to Oakland, California.

Such lateral uneven actions are named after a Dutch ice skating approach and may pose critical security dangers.

The company can be investigating a June 25 Southwest flight that departed from a closed runway in Portland, Maine.