Flights cancelled after Texas whistleblowers expose compromised safety regime

The US aviation regulator has cracked down on safety after two of its aircraft inspectors blew the whistle on an allegedly cosy relationship allowing lax oversight of a low-cost carrier, Southwest Airlines.

Travellers have suffered delays and cancellations over the past week as a special audit by the Federal Aviation Administration prompted four airlines to ground planes. American Airlines and Delta Airlines are among those disrupted.

The FAA's action followed allegations by two of its officers at a field office in Texas who complained of a dysfunctional environment in which their supervisors blocked efforts to enforce regulations. Bobby Boutris, one of the FAA whistleblowers, was responsible for ensuring that airlines adequately maintained older models of Boeing 737 jets. But when he uncovered lapses at Southwest Airlines, he was told to back off.

"I found a lot of inconsistencies with the records," Boutris told National Public Radio yesterday. "They were different from aircraft to aircraft; it was very hard to determine compliance."

Operating 515 aircraft, Southwest runs 3,300 flights daily within the US - more than any other airline. Boutris says FAA supervisors cooperated with the carrier in overlooking paperwork discrepancies and allowing uninspected planes to keep flying. This was despite concerns that ageing 737s are vulnerable to cracks around windows - a phenomenon that caused the roof to peel off a plane in mid-air 10 years ago, killing a flight attendant.

When Boutris tried to investigate, his boss attempted to reassign him at the behest of Southwest. Boutris says one of his bosses was a close friend of a maintenance manager at Southwest, who joined the airline directly from the FAA.

A report by the US department for transportation's inspector general, Calvin Scovel, scolded the FAA for failing to heed Boutris's warnings as far back as 2005.

Southwest has scrapped plans to outsource its maintenance to El Salvador. In a statement to passengers, its chief executive, Gary Kelly, said: "I acknowledge that recent events may have caused some of you to doubt the trust you place in us, and for that I am very sorry."

The FAA spent last month auditing airworthiness at every US airline. Although it found 99.3% compliance with its regulations, a spate of unusual stoppages have since taken place. Delta and American cancelled hundreds of flights last week after discovering that hydraulic pumps on MD-80 aircraft had not been properly inspected. This week, United Airlines grounded its fleet of 52 long-haul Boeing 777s for tests on fire-suppression equipment in cargo holds - causing the cancellation of seven of its 11 transatlantic flights from London on Wednesday.

Fuel advance

Boeing yesterday claimed a world first by flying a manned plane powered by hydrogen fuel cells, but it cautioned against believing these could replace kerosene for large jets. Given the price of oil and global warming, engine-makers are seeking to make jets more fuel-efficient. Boeing said its European research and technology arm in Madrid had flown a modified Dimona motor-glider with a proton-exchange membrane fuel cell/lithium-ion battery hybrid system. David Gow