Southwest scrambling

The airline that can do no wrong is suddenly in a heap of trouble. It grounded 38 of its Boeing 737s because of concerns about whether required testing had been done (that's out of 530 737s in the fleet). The airline said it had to cancel 118 flights by midday today, according to AP, or about 9 percent of its scheduled run. But a check of LAX flight information shows no apparent problems (best to check on your specific flight). From the NYT:

Southwest, which has about 530 737s in its fleet, was fined $10.2 million by the agency last week for continuing to fly planes after the carrier had discovered it had failed to perform required inspections. The proposed fine is a F.A.A. record. Southwest did not say, in a statement issued on Wednesday, whether the 38 grounded planes were part of that prior problem, which involved inspections to detect cracks on the fuselage. A spokeswoman could not immediately be reached.