The Tale of Two Southwests

ABC's Nightline was all set to do a puff piece on Southwest Airlines -- "the all-too-rare story of a U.S. airline that has been so successful, so profitable, so relentlessly cheery that practically no one who works at the airline ever quits." Only, that was before word broke that Southwest and the Federal Aviation Administration conspired to falsify safety records for nearly four dozen Boeing 737s that weren't, ya know, safe. For those who missed the Nightline piece, which runs a good 10 minutes, it's available here. Courtesy, really, Southwest's blog. --Robert Wilonsky