The episode has also brought the F.A.A. under scrutiny because a local official signed off a year ago on Southwest's continuing to fly 46 planes for about a week after the carrier had reported that it could have missed an inspection deadline.
The deadline for inspection was in March.
We should be pushing for a highly intrusive inspection regime, with a deadline -- not because we believe Saddam will comply, but because if he doesn't the grounds for attack will be founded on international grievance.
Both the agency and the airline were embarrassed by a disclosure that two F.A.A. inspectors had complained that an agency supervisor allowed Southwest to operate older Boeing 737s that had gone past a deadline for inspection.
Inspectors armed with American, British and other Western intelligence on Iraqi weapons sites plan to be in place well before the United Nations deadline, said the inspection chief, Hans Blix.
James Weinstein, the transportation commissioner, and C. Richard Kamin, director of the Division of Motor Vehicles, acknowledged that the tougher emissions test would not be ready at all 32 state-operated inspection stations by the June 30 deadline set by the E.P.A.
Paul Gillis, a professor at Peking University's Guanghua School of Management, called Tuesday's agreement "a face-saving way to kick the can down the road," arguing the accounting oversight board might decide to extend its year-end deadline for a full inspection deal.
As a result, inspections tend to accumulate towards internal project deadlines, possibly leading to excess overtime costs, quality degradation and difficulties in meeting milestones.
It appears to be heading for a showdown with the United Nations over its refusal to let experts check a military complex the West suspects of producing nuclear weapons material yesterday, less than a week before the deadline for inspections runs out, it had made no move to grant access to the site.
The company has previously ignored five warnings of deadlines from the Environment Agency and an inspection of the pile was carried out on 15 June.
Under a new law, the department faces a year-end deadline to improve passenger screening and baggage inspection.
