USA Today reports that Bobby Hedlund, the FAA manager currently responsible for overseeing the agency's Southwest Airlines office, received months of flight training from the airline during 2005. This in itself isn't news. The FAA has had an inspector training program in place for years, saying – rightfully so – that this type of instruction is a way for inspectors to stay abreast of changing technology.

At issue is who paid. It seems that the training, with an estimated retail value of over $15,000, was provided free of charge to the inspectors by Southwest.

Run that one by The Ethicist and see what he says.

The free training violates the FAA's rules of conduct, and proves again that some of the agency's inspectors enjoy an inappropriately close relationship with Southwest. This first came to light earlier in the year when it was discovered that the FAA turned a blind eye while Southwest operated planes deemed "unsafe." After this revelation, the FAA played catch-up by ordering inspections that grounded hundreds of aircraft.

The free-flight fracas wasn't the only bad news for the FAA this week. The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) says the FAA has in recent years blown off more than 100 recommended safety reviews, covering everything from flight crew training to deicing programs. A letter to a Senate subcommittee from FAA head Bobby Sturgell admitted that "dozens" of safety reviews had been skipped, blaming the lapses on "inadequate resources."

The consensus seems to be that the skipped inspections weren't related to crucial safety issues, and that passengers were never at risk. But it could indicate that there is a more deeply-rooted culture of cronyism at the FAA, and that's bad news.

Photo: as737700/Creative Commons 2.0