Alan Levin, Bloomberg
The fact that these oversights affected planes bearing fewer seats, used by smaller carriers, is surely of little comfort to some frequent flyers.
6 days ago
Mary Schlangenstein, Bloomberg
Jane Garvey is likely to have a busy few years overseeing CEO Oscar Munoz, with a number of big decisions on the horizon.
4 weeks ago
Boom! Supersonic flights just got one step closer to becoming a reality again, thanks to news that U.S. regulations about them are coming up for review with an intent to loosen them.
Richard Clough, Mary Schlangenstein and Alan Levin, Bloomberg
Southwest has finished its inspections without finding any more fan blade cracks like the one that led to a fatal engine failure in April. Now authorities want other airlines to speed up their inspections of older engines with the highest risk of failure. Passengers would appreciate that too.
1 month ago
Brian Sumers, Skift
It's hard to know what to make of this. There could be something there, or the inspector general's office could just be changing the scope of its audit of the FAA to placate several members of Congress.
A preliminary report from safety regulators about the engine that tore apart on an April 17 Southwest flight did not draw any conclusions, leading to more questions about any potential abnormalities that may have caused the incident. But any transparency like this so soon afterward is better than the opposite.
2 months ago
Mary Schlangenstein , Bloomberg
Maybe it was a case of understandable jitters, but Southwest Airlines was not taking any risks on Wednesday when one of its flights was diverted to Cleveland to check on an issue with a window. Probably a smart move. For passengers, and for PR.
Mary Schlangenstein and Alan Levin, Bloomberg
It turns out CFM International, the manufacturer of the engine that tore apart on the Southwest jet last week, was preparing to request inspections before a passenger lost her life on the flight. That was based on an extremely rare failure on the same engine type in 2016. Will reforms be coming for safety inspections?
Julie Johnsson and Alan Levin , Bloomberg
It had been nine years since a fatality occurred onboard a U.S. airline. Regulators are scrambling to ensure a similar tragedy doesn't occur again by ordering emergency inspections of the engine type on the Southwest jet that did an emergency landing in Philadelphia. Smart move.
Joe Nocera, Bloomberg
This week's aviation news, which began with a 60-minutes report on Allegiant Air's questionable safety record and ended with the death of a Southwest Airlines passenger, likely stoked the fears of already nervous airline travelers. But if you look at the statistics, traveling by plane is still a much safer option than other modes of transportation.
Ryan Beene, Alan Levin and Ari Natter, Bloomberg
Trump's idea to get his personal pilot to head the Federal Aviation Administration is probably not a good idea. There's not much more to say.
4 months ago
Alan Levin and Mark Niquette, Bloomberg
Privatizing the FAA could be a way to modernize the agency and make it more adaptable to new technology but there are plenty of potential pitfalls, as well.
