By
Andy Pasztor
Feb. 18, 2019 9:50 a.m. ET
Federal air-safety regulators are investigating Southwest Airlines Co. LUV -0.52% for widespread failures to accurately track the combined weight of checked bags loaded into each of its jets, according to government officials and internal agency documents.
The Federal Aviation Administration’s yearlong civil probe, the documents show, found systemic and significant mistakes with employee calculations and luggage-loading practices, resulting in potential discrepancies when pilots compute takeoff weights. The inaccuracies ranged from a few dozen pounds to more than 1,000 pounds in excess of what the paperwork indicated, sparking disputes between the company and some agency inspectors about potential safety consequences.
In an email to The Wall Street Journal last week, an FAA spokesman confirmed the investigation and said the agency has ordered “a comprehensive solution to the methods and processes used” by the airline. “The FAA will not close its investigation until it is satisfied that Southwest’s corrective actions are consistent and sustained,” the spokesman’s email added.
The agency hasn’t decided whether to impose fines or any other punishment, according to people familiar with the investigation, which hasn’t been reported before.
In email responses to questions from the Journal, a Southwest spokesman said it has cooperated fully with the FAA and voluntarily reports issues to enhance safety. He called the company’s dealings with the agency part of a “routine dialogue.” Stressing that the agency hasn’t imposed fines or taken any other formal enforcement action, the spokesman said the exchanges with the FAA “do not constitute findings of noncompliance.” The airline said it plans to phase in new baggage-counting procedures by year’s end.
Unlike other large U.S. airlines, Southwest doesn’t rely on computerized scanners to ensure accurate counts as bags are piled into the bellies of aircraft. Instead, the carrier has the ground crew count bags. Regardless of the way bags are counted, airlines use average bag weights to calculate the overall weight of checked luggage. In the course of the inquiry, Southwest told the FAA its system carries “less than minor risk” for passengers, according to documents.
But some FAA inspectors expressed concerns that in extreme circumstances, such as an engine failure at takeoff, a plane could experience handling difficulties. Pilots set takeoff speed and thrust depending on total aircraft weight and how it is distributed, including passengers, fuel and contents of cargo holds.
There haven’t been any Southwest accidents linked to suspect weights, and the probe—described by the FAA in documents as a high-priority “enforcement investigation”—is continuing.
Dozens of investigative updates and other FAA documents reviewed by the Journal lay out a pattern of failures to comply with agency requirements that pilots have verified, up-to-date total aircraft weights before takeoff. The files also include extensive correspondence—stretching back to January 2018—between agency managers and Southwest officials about various views on the safety implications.
Southwest over the past year has implemented procedural changes and internal reporting safeguards, repeatedly telling the FAA in documents that nagging problems with manual bag counts and weight calculations fall well within operating safety margins of its fleet of Boeing Co. 737s. Distracted baggage handlers and last-minute bags are a major cause of loading discrepancies, according to Southwest.
Amid lingering FAA concerns, Southwest is embracing technology. By year’s end, the spokesman said, the carrier plans to institute computerized scanning of all individual bags on the tarmac, just before they are loaded into the cargo holds of its more than 700 Boeing 737 jets.
In a Jan. 11 letter, Jeff Hamlett, Southwest’s senior director of regulatory compliance, told a high-ranking FAA inspector that scanners are slated to be phased in first in Seattle, San Diego and Sacramento. After that, his letter said, the carrier “will review the test results and evaluate a phased roll out” nationwide.
In the same letter to the local FAA manager, Southwest, which carries more domestic passengers than any other carrier, asked for the investigation to be closed without further FAA action, citing “our efforts and responsiveness to your office.”
Some FAA officials have estimated in interviews that during certain periods, at least one-third of Southwest’s roughly 4,000 daily flights could have operated with inaccurate weight data, a figure Southwest doesn’t agree with. The Southwest spokesman said there is no current information to support the estimate, “especially given the controls and adjustments that we’ve implemented.”
It is unusual for this type of FAA investigation to last for so long without at least some interim enforcement action, according to government and industry officials. The agency and Southwest also have unusually divergent views on what prompted the probe in the first place, according to these officials.
In the documents, agency inspectors wrote that the investigation was partly sparked by separate allegations lodged by a whistleblower and received on an agency “hotline” for safety complaints. By contrast, the Southwest spokesman said the probe was prompted entirely by voluntary reports from the airline and its employees.
In early 2018, when the investigation was launched, the FAA told the carrier “there have been numerous reports of ground operations personnel and/or flight operations personnel not following Southwest Airlines procedures for entering correct and complete weight information” before takeoff. One early document called it a “high-risk concern.”
The inaccuracies prompted swift FAA responses, and were considered serious enough to require Southwest to physically audit the number of bags unloaded daily from 25% of its flights. That sample was later reduced, at Southwest’s request, to 15%. The airline continues to provide daily status reports to the agency.
In rare cases, FAA documents referred to flights with cargo loading discrepancies totaling more than a ton. Southwest said it can’t comment on weight issues with any particular flight because of confidentiality requirements covering voluntary incident reports.
In some documents, Southwest said an error resulting in a 1,500-pound lower-than-actual takeoff weight should be considered within safety limits. In other documents, the airline said anything up to a 10,000-pound mistake would amount to a minor risk. Several current and former Boeing 737 captains said they would consider the larger weight discrepancy dangerous to rely on for takeoff calculations. Southwest has said all of its planes are typically designed to take off at weights in excess of 150,000 pounds.
The investigation is complicated by the fact that the Dallas-area FAA office that oversees Southwest faces separate scrutiny by the Transportation Department’s inspector general. That audit focuses on allegations local office managers have been too compliant with Southwest requests, affecting a host of issues beyond weight calculations. In the past the FAA has said it welcomed the audit, calling it an “opportunity to improve upon what is already the safest aerospace system in the world” and adding that the audit is “designed to identify potential risks before they become serious problems.”
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