Seems like there’s a rash of aircraft inspections of late and you may want to know why?  You may want to know why, but you will probably not like the answer.

First, some background.

The world’s largest airline–and in many ways most uncomfortable,too–had to cancel 300 flights today so that its fleet of MD-80 jets could have some of their wiring reinspected.

American Eagle last week–a regional– had to keep some of its planes on the ground to go over inspection reports on the rudders and hydraulic systems.

United last week pulled seven 747’s from the skies because some of the equipment used to actually do inspections on the aircraft were not up to regulation standards.

The ”inspection fever” began when Southwest missed some inspections on its fleet of aging 737’s prompting the FAA to propose a fine against the airline.

FAA was pissed

It was pissed because, at least in the case of Southwest, some of the FAA’s own certified inspectors apparently signed off on letting the airline continue to fly planes that had not been fully checked. Some later showed signs of cracking in the aircraft’s metal skin.

So, the FAA went on the war path, telling all airlines that it would be looking over 10 percent of all the mandatory government inspection orders for each airline by the end of June.

The planes aren’t dangerous; the airlines are just greedy

Most of the items being inspected pose little to no risk to the safety of the aircraft.

But, what we are seeing for the first time is just how many corners airlines are cutting in an effort to save as much money as possible and increase profits–if they have any–as much as possible.

Airplanes sitting on the ground being inspected do not make money for an airline–they loose money, in fact.  The more an airline can put off having to ground a plane for an inspection, the more that plane can be used to haul paying passengers.

So far, these sloppy maintenance procedures have not led to any aircraft accidents; but, they could.