Thursday, March 15, 2012

Southwest Airlines grounds dozens of jets to examine structural soundness

Southwest Airlines Co. canceled flights and temporarily grounded 43 planes to examine if they were sound enough to carry passengers, the latest twist in the low-cost carrier's saga of missed safety inspections and civil penalties.

The groundings on Wednesday affected about 8 percent of Southwest's fleet, and came as the airline faces a $10.2 million (euro6.6 million) civil penalty for continuing to fly nearly 50 planes that hadn't been inspected for cracks in their fuselages.

Southwest shares fell more than 9 percent before closing down 7.3 percent.

Since the Federal Aviation Administration announced the penalty last week, Southwest has endured a …

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