FAA: Southwest Airlines can fly without inspections

DALLAS, Feb. 25 (UPI) -- A day after Southwest Airlines grounded one-fifth of its fleet due to missing inspections, the Federal Aviation Authority allowed the airline to keep flying if the inspections are done within five days.

FAA officials said mandatory inspections of a backup rudder system must be done on 128 Boeing 737-700 models. On Tuesday, Southwest voluntarily grounded 128 aircrafts, and some 80 flights were canceled, after the missing inspection was discovered.

"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 company said in a written statement. "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"

Southwest officials said the groundings are expected to have "very minimal impact" on the operations today. Southwest, which flies more than 34,000 flights a day, is the world's largest operator of Boeing 737 aircrafts.