Southwest faces Tuesday deadline for settling dispute over using unapproved parts on planes

Southwest faces Tuesday deadline from FAA

DALLAS — Southwest Airlines Co. faces a deadline of Tuesday for settling a dispute with regulators over the use of unapproved parts on more than 80 planes.

Southwest says it has replaced the unapproved parts in more than 25 planes but needs more time to find parts for the remaining jets. Without an extension, the Federal Aviation Administration could force the airline to ground some planes.

The airline said Monday it wants more time to continue replacing parts without disrupting service for customers.

FAA officials said the unapproved parts — designed to push hot engine exhaust away from the wings — didn’t pose an immediate safety hazard. On Aug. 22, they gave Southwest 10 days to fix the problem.

Southwest originally said the parts were installed on 46 planes, but spokeswoman Beth Harbin said Monday further checking boosted the number to 82 planes.

“Southwest did an exhaustive audit of the vendor, and are comfortable we’ve found all the parts at issue,” she said.

Harbin called the parts “perfectly safe” but acknowledged they were made by a subcontractor who wasn’t approved for the work by the FAA. The subcontractor was hired by a maintenance company hired by Southwest. Neither the maintenance company nor the subcontractor have been publicly identified.

Southwest has more than 500 planes. If the FAA forced Southwest to idle all the planes that still have the unapproved parts, that could be nearly 10 percent of its fleet of Boeing 737 aircraft. The airline canceled 15 flights and suffered widespread delays when it grounded 46 planes for most of the day on Aug. 22.

Dallas-based Southwest, the nation’s biggest discount airline, agreed in March to pay $7.5 million to settle FAA allegations that it operated nearly 60,000 flights using planes that had not been examined for structural cracks as required by federal regulations.

In June, a Southwest jet had to make an emergency landing when a foot-long hole opened in the roof. There were no injuries.

Southwest shares fell 20 cents, or 2.4 percent, to $8.31 in morning trading Monday.