Fri, Jul 18, 2008 (2:04 a.m.)

The Federal Aviation Administration says on its Web site, “Our mission is to provide the safest, most efficient aerospace system in the world.” But what it says and what it does are two different things.

For too long the FAA has enjoyed cozy relationships with the airlines it should be regulating. Many of the safety lapses American travelers witnessed in recent years were traced to lax inspections.

A recent example reported this month was when the Transportation Department’s inspector general found the FAA was “overly collaborative” with Southwest Airlines. The FAA turned its back last year when Southwest flew 46 airplanes that should have been inspected for fuselage cracks before carrying a combined 145,000 passengers.

Fortunately, a bipartisan group of congressmen announced Tuesday they were introducing legislation aimed at ending the FAA’s cozy relationships.

The legislation would create an independent whistleblower office within the agency to investigate safety complaints and prohibit airlines from having their choice of FAA inspectors. The bill also would establish a two-year period before former FAA inspectors or their supervisors could work for an airline, and would require the agency to perform monthly reviews of safety compliance reports to take a more aggressive approach at correcting problems.

The bill is long overdue.

The FAA got off track when it adopted an inane policy of treating airlines as “customers” rather than as businesses that required tight scrutiny to ensure the public’s safety. Travelers paid the price this year when thousands of flights were canceled because the agency’s cherished “customers” had chosen to ignore required airplane maintenance. The legislation aims to put an end to the “customer” policy as well.

If the FAA had followed its own mission statement, instead of kowtowing to the desires of airlines it’s supposed to regulate, it wouldn’t have angry congressmen and passengers breathing down its neck.