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Thanks for adding a bit more clarity to this discussion and in some ways verifying what I have been alluding to.Originally Posted by tanker
The AD actually required a series of overlapping inspections. March of LAST year SWA discovered that in 46 of the 220 aircraft that required the AD a 20 square inch area had not been inspected during the required AD overlapping inspections. This 20 square inch area had been inspected previously, just not during the overlapping AD inspections. SWA went to the FAA and Boeing and asked if they could have a 10 day window to inspect this 20 square inch area IAW the AD. They both said it was not a safety issue and to take up to 10 days to accomplish the AD inspection of the 20 square inch area, which was done in 8 days. This year the fine that SWA is getting is for the 8 day period that both Boeing, the writer of the AD, and the FAA said it was okay to fly the aircraft. The fine is not for the flying done prior to the self disclosure but for the time frame after when the FAA said it was okay.