Southwest Airlines is calling its pilots in for additional training following a spate of recent safety incidents that has prompted a probe by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Pilots will be required to attend the airline’s Dallas headquarters to undergo a one-day training session where they will explore recent incidents and discuss how flight crews can appropriately manage risks.
Explaining the decision to implement the mandatory training, Southwest told its pilots in an internal memo: “Over the past few months, we have seen an increase in safety events,” although the memo also noted that “meaningful work is underway to address these events and advance our safety.”
In July, the FAA confirmed that it had initiated a formal safety audit of Southwest following a series of recent mishaps and alarming near misses, including a Southwest Boeing 737, which descended to just 150 feet of Tampa Bay.
As well as the FAA probe, Southwest has formed its own investigation team that includes safety experts and various leaders in a bid to prevent future near misses.
In one recent incident, a packed Southwest jet took off from a closed runway at Portland International Jetport (PWM) in Maine and narrowly avoided colliding with an airport ground vehicle that was carrying out an inspection of the runway before it was due to open.
The early morning incident occurred on June 25 when Southwest Flight 4805 to Baltimore was preparing for departure from the airport which has two intersecting runways.
Just days before this near-miss accident, a Southwest Airlines airplane flying from Las Vegas to Oklahoma City descended to just 500 feet above ground level while still nine miles out from landing at OKC airport.
The six-year-old aircraft ‘buzzed’ a residential neighborhood after descending to a dangerously low altitude, prompting a traffic control to issue a ‘low altitude alert’ to the pilots.
And at the end of May, a third Southwest Airlines airplane experienced a so-called Dutch Roll during a flight from Phoenix to Oakland, causing enough damage to keep the aircraft grounded in Oakland for several days before being flown to Everett for further repairs.
The FAA is also probing United Airlines over a similar spate of mishaps and accidents, including a tire falling off a Boeing 777 as it took off from San Francisco International Airport in March and crushing several vehicles in an employee parking lot.
As part of its probe into United, the FAA barred the airline from performing certain certification activities and stopped United from launching new flights to previously unserved destinations.
The FAA has not indicated how long its safety audits at both United and Southwest will take to complete.
Southwest’s pilot training days are set to start in November, although it’s not known how long it might take to complete the training for the more than 10,000-strong pilot workforce.
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