Southwest Airlines grounding 128 planes over missed inspections to backup ... - abc7news.com

DALLAS --

Southwest Airlines says it has grounded 128 planes after failing to inspect backup hydraulic systems used to control the rudder if the main system fails.

Southwest says it has canceled 90 flights so far. The grounding covers about one-fifth of its fleet.

The airline said Tuesday night that after discovering the inspections had been skipped, it immediately notified federal safety regulators and began checking the planes.

Southwest released the following statement:

"Southwest Airlines discovered an overdue maintenance check required to be performed on the standby hydraulic system, which serves as a back-up to the primary hydraulic systems. As a result of this discovery, 128 -700 aircraft were identified as having overflown a required check. Once identified, Southwest immediately and voluntarily removed the affected aircraft from service, initiated maintenance checks, disclosed the matter to the FAA, and developed an action plan to complete all overdue checks. The FAA approved a proposal that would allow Southwest to continue operating the aircraft for a maximum of five days as the checks are completed. Approximately 80 cancellations occurred today as a result of the events and the airline is anticipating a very minimal impact to their operations tomorrow. The Safety of our Customers and Employees remains our highest priority and we are working quickly to resolve the situation."

The FAA released the following statement:

Late Tuesday afternoon, Southwest Airlines notified the Federal Aviation Administration that it had missed some required inspections on the standby rudder system for 128 of its Boeing 737 aircraft. The airline voluntarily removed these aircraft from service while the FAA works with Boeing and Southwest to evaluate a proposal that would allow the airline to continue flying the planes until the inspections are completed over the next few days.

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ABC7 News contributed to this report.

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