( dpa )- Low-cost carrier Southwest Airlines was fined 10.2 million dollars by US officials Thursday for deliberately failing to conduct mandatory safety inspections on some 46 aircraft.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the planes operated for nearly eight months between 2006 and 2007 - 59,791 flights in total - without meeting an FAA directive to repeatedly inspect areas of the fuselage for possible cracks.
Southwest continued to fly the 46 planes for another eight days even once the airline became aware of the lapse, and later found that six of the aircraft did in fact have fuselage fatigue cracks when they were inspected, according to the FAA.
The agency said the imposed civil penalty "reflects the serious nature of those deliberate violations."
"The FAA is taking action against Southwest Airlines for a failing to follow rules that are designed to protect passengers and crew," FAA Associate Administrator for Aviation Safety Nicholas A Sabatini said in a statement.