I have to admit that I am quite amazed and perplexed in this thread.
PAX, pilots and maintenance justify a clear violation of an AD and justify it with the ‘well known’ no one died defense.
Sad, truly sad and disappointing.
Consider this, If SWA is capable to do this unfettered, then were will the next line in the sand be?
Oops, 100 people died but the FAA and Boeing knew about it.
Bull####
B) UT
I'm amazed and perplexed that you're amazed and perplexed, since it appears that you were the first to use the phrase, "no one died". I don't think that others were agreeing with your sarcastic remark to justify what has happened. The comments that I've read agreeing with "no one died" referenced the media's and public's anticipated eventual lack of interest in this story. No where that I've read has anyone implied, "No one died, therefore it's OK to intentionally violate an AD".
The posters on this topic seem to be divided into two groups: (1) those that are willing to wait for all the facts to come in before forming an opinion about individual WN and FAA employees' guilt, and based on that, a just punishment; and (2) those that are so hungry for anything negative about WN or the FAA, that they'd rather convict, then punish, then let all the facts come in.
The second group has made comments like:
(1) we'd like to see them (WN) go out of business
(2) since WN did it, it must be going on all over the industry
(3) in order to achieve a high on-time percentage, WN must be cutting back on mx
(4)mx has been cut, to an unsafe level, from airlines since 9-11
(5)this incident is a criminal act on the part of WN
(6)this incident was a deliberate act
(7)this incident was a deliberate tactic to usurp mx rules
(8)WN shows a profit by not paying for mx repairs
(9)WN is unfettered to violate FARs
All of the above are opinions; they will eventually be proven, or not proven. Some have an infatuation with the wishful demise of WN; I don't, so I'm willing to wait. What has been proven, time and time again, is members of the media jump on something and beat it to death, until something else comes along (like the governor of NY allegedly being involved in a protitution ring).