http://edition.cnn.com/2008/US/03/07/southwest.planes/index.html http://edition.cnn.com/2008/US/03/07/southwest.planes/index.... "Boeing Inc., the plane's manu

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/US/03/07/southwest.planes/index.html http://edition.cnn.com/2008/US/03/07/southwest.planes/index.... "Boeing Inc., the plane's manufacturer, which was contacted when the problems arose, said that at no time were the cracks unsafe, Kelly said. "Cracks do occur. That's why we do inspections."" Also ""In this particular situation, we identified a gap in our documentation. We voluntarily reported that to the FAA. We worked out with the FAA how to fix that problem, and we fixed it," he said on CNN's "American Morning."" But you know what? I'll concede, that was a huge blunder on Southwest's part. However, they found it in a safety audit and took all appropriate actions. Still, that should never happen. Moving on, let's look at their safety record. From http://www.airsafe.com/events/airlines/luv.htm http://www.airsafe.com/events/airlines/luv.htm "Southwest Airlines has not had any fatal events involving a passenger since it began service in 1971." Take a look at this chart and compare the "passenger" fatalities per flights flown, to the other more expensive airlines. http://www.airsafe.com/airline.htm http://www.airsafe.com/airline.htm We can also look at a general crash database: http://www.airdisaster.com/cgi-bin/airline_detail.cgi?airline=United+Airlines http://www.airdisaster.com/cgi-bin/airline_detail.cgi?airlin... http://www.airdisaster.com/cgi-bin/airline_detail.cgi?airline=American+Airlines http://www.airdisaster.com/cgi-bin/airline_detail.cgi?airlin... http://www.airdisaster.com/cgi-bin/airline_detail.cgi?airline=Continental+Airlines http://www.airdisaster.com/cgi-bin/airline_detail.cgi?airlin... and Southwest http://www.airdisaster.com/cgi-bin/airline_detail.cgi?airline=Southwest+Airlines http://www.airdisaster.com/cgi-bin/airline_detail.cgi?airlin... (southwest has operated since 1971 so you should keep limit your scope of crashes to those years for the other airlines)