Bobby Boutris, a whistleblower from the Federal Aviation Administration, testified to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee today that he received a death threat after airing his concerns to supervisors about safety lapses at Southwest and a too cozy relationship between an FAA supervisor and the airline that allowed Southwest to fly damaged planes.
A second whistleblower, Douglas Peters, choked up and had to compose himself while describing how he also received a veiled threat from an FAA superior when he raised concerns about unethical actions between an FAA investigator and Southwest.
Boutris told the committee that on March 15, 2007, Southwest verbally informed an FAA supervisor named Douglas Gawadzinski that it had failed to conduct required safety checks on about 100 planes (it later revised the number to 47), but Gawadzinski didn't document the disclosure until March 19 and allowed the airline to continue to fly the planes in "a known unsafe condition" until March 23. Boutris said that at the time that Southwest discovered it hadn't conducted the safety checks, the planes had already been flying for 30 months without the required inspections.
He said six of the planes that Southwest continued to fly had a crack in their fuselage and one of them had multiple cracks, ranging from one inch to three-and-a-half inches long.
Boutris blamed the lapses on a cozy relationship between Gawadzinski and Paul Comeau, a former FAA inspector who was overseeing the airline for the FAA when Southwest offered him a job. Comeau now works for
Southwest in the position of ensuring that the airline complies with safety inspections.
"I believe that Southwest airlines knowingly hired Mr. Comeau for his
FAA connections with inspectors in our office," Boutris said. "And to their advantage placed him in the position that directly interfaces with our office on a daily basis in regards to regulatory compliance issues in dealing with aircraft maintenance."
Boutris said it was sad that he and other FAA safety inspectors had to become whistleblowers in order to get safety issues addressed.
"We are told that the airlines are our customers and if they do well we do well," he said. "However, some of us forget that we have another more important customer, the taxpayers, who put their trust in us to ensure that the airlines provide safe transportation for the flying public."
Congressman James Oberster (D-Minnesota) blasted the FAA for the "most egregious lapse of safety I have seen in the last 23 years.
"The FAA would have us believe that what took place was an isolated incident," he said. "But the testimony we have heard substantiates that this is not an isolated aberration attributable to a rogue individual.
But rather, this was a systematic breakdown of the safety oversight role of the FAA."
