DALLAS (AP) — Federal officials say that Southwest Airlines and the union representing its pilots have resisted cooperating with investigations into accidents and other incidents and pushed to close the matters quickly.
In one instance disclosed Wednesday, the Federal Aviation Administration cut short an investigation of a 2019 incident in Connecticut even though the agency determined that there was pilot error. Both wings of the Southwest jet were damaged as pilots battling wind tried to land at Bradley International Airport, outside of Hartford.
The FAA said Southwest and union officials resisted interviews with agency representatives in that and other cases. Sometimes the delaying tactics worked. An investigation into why pilots placed duct tape over sensors outside a plane before a flight fizzled when the FAA employee took another job.
Neither Southwest nor its pilots' union responded immediately to requests for comment.
The FAA investigation was disclosed Wednesday by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, which represents federal whistleblowers. It reported another accident — a plane that went off the runway in Burbank, California — in which an FAA review was “fast-tracked” under pressure from Southwest. In a separate review of that incident, the National Transportation Review Board found that the co-pilot's conduct was “highly unprofessional.”
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