Southwest Airlines grounds 43 planes for missing inspections

DALLAS -- Southwest Airlines Co. canceled flights Wednesday and temporarily grounded 43 planes to examine if they were sound enough to carry passengers, the latest twist in the low-cost carrier's saga of missed safety inspections and civil penalties.

The groundings affected about 8 percent of Southwest's fleet and came as the airline faces a $10.2 million civil penalty from the Federal Aviation Administration for continuing to fly nearly 50 planes that hadn't been inspected for cracks in their fuselages.

Southwest shares fell more than 9 percent before closing down 7.3 percent.

More Coverage Video Southwest Grounds 43 Planes After Concerns

On Wednesday, word filtered out the airline had taken 38 planes out of service, along with five others that were already in hangars undergoing routine maintenance. That's about 8 percent of Southwest's fleet.

Spokeswoman Linda Rutherford said Southwest took the action after getting clarification from manufacturer Boeing Co. on Tuesday night about the type of inspection -- visual or magnetic, or a combination of both -- needed for areas around the windows on some older Boeing 737-300 and 737-500 jets.

By late Wednesday afternoon, Rutherford said, 25 planes had undergone the 90-minute inspection at maintenance bases in Dallas, Houston, Chicago and Phoenix and returned to service. The remainder were expected to be back flying by Wednesday night.

Southwest had canceled 139 flights by late Wednesday afternoon, or about 4 percent of its scheduled flights for the day, according to Flightstats.com. The FAA is conducting its own review.