Southwest Airlines CO. safety record at a glance
Southwest Airlines CO. has been the subject of 30 Cal/OSHA inspections in California since 2000, opened between Sep 21, 2001 and Feb 19, 2026. 14 of them were accident inspections. 20 of them produced citations, 45 in all: 3 serious. Inspectors proposed $97,105 in penalties; after appeals and settlements the current total is $57,760. The largest single penalty, $18,000, came from an inspection opened Aug 21, 2025 in Sacramento. That places the employer at #1,171 of 122,854 California employers in the database by penalties. The same employer has 13 WARN layoff notices on file with the EDD. It also appears in 3 federal wage and hour cases.
Industry as coded by the inspecting office: Transportation and Warehousing; Administrative and Support and Waste Management Services. Worksites in Oakland, Sacramento, San Diego, Burbank, Los Angeles, San Jose, Santa Ana, San Francisco.
Every inspection, newest first
Click a date for the citations in that inspection.
| Opened | City | Why | Result | Penalty | Closed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 19, 2026 | Oakland | Accident | 1 citation | $850 | open |
| Aug 21, 2025 | Sacramento | Accident | 1 citation 1 serious | $18,000 | open |
| Dec 13, 2022 | Oakland | Accident | 3 citations 1 serious | $8,485 $8,800 proposed | Aug 4, 2025 |
| Sep 7, 2022 | San Diego | Accident | 1 citation | $0 | Mar 23, 2023 |
| Aug 17, 2022 | Burbank | Complaint | no citations | $0 | Jan 23, 2023 |
| Aug 1, 2022 | Los Angeles | Complaint | no citations | $0 | Jan 27, 2023 |
| Apr 4, 2022 | Oakland | Accident | 1 citation | $0 $560 proposed | Jul 24, 2024 |
| Oct 13, 2021 | San Jose | Accident | 2 citations | $3,750 $18,750 proposed | Jul 1, 2024 |
| Sep 1, 2021 | Los Angeles | Referral | 1 citation | $1,125 | open |
| Oct 8, 2018 | Burbank | Accident | 1 citation | $935 | Oct 17, 2019 |
| Aug 20, 2018 | Complaint | no inspection made | $0 | open | |
| Aug 4, 2016 | San Diego | Accident | 2 citations | $425 $850 proposed | Jul 17, 2017 |
| Jun 16, 2016 | Los Angeles | Complaint | 1 citation | $185 | Feb 3, 2017 |
| Apr 27, 2016 | San Diego | Accident | 5 citations 1 serious | $11,335 $15,355 proposed | Dec 19, 2016 |
| Mar 24, 2014 | San Diego | Accident | no citations | $0 | Apr 29, 2014 |
| Jan 6, 2014 | Oakland | Complaint | 4 citations | $1,400 | May 22, 2014 |
| Oct 7, 2013 | Burbank | Complaint | no citations | $0 | Feb 24, 2014 |
| May 15, 2012 | Santa Ana | Complaint | no citations | $0 | Jul 16, 2012 |
| Oct 5, 2011 | San Jose | Complaint | 2 citations | $650 | Mar 30, 2012 |
| Jul 20, 2011 | Oakland | Complaint | 3 citations | $750 $1,915 proposed | Feb 28, 2013 |
| Jun 22, 2011 | Santa Ana | Complaint | no citations | $0 | Jul 21, 2011 |
| Jun 13, 2011 | San Francisco | Accident | no citations | $0 | Jul 7, 2011 |
| Jan 12, 2011 | San Francisco | Complaint | no citations | $0 | Aug 10, 2012 |
| Feb 24, 2010 | San Diego | Complaint | 6 citations | $1,350 $1,630 proposed | Sep 16, 2010 |
| Feb 4, 2010 | Santa Ana | Complaint | no citations | $0 | Apr 19, 2010 |
| Jun 29, 2006 | Sacramento | Planned | 1 citation | $300 | Oct 27, 2006 |
| May 16, 2006 | Oakland | Accident | 1 citation | $3,000 $18,000 proposed | Sep 9, 2008 |
| Apr 4, 2006 | Oakland | Complaint | 4 citations | $450 $740 proposed | Mar 4, 2009 |
| Mar 3, 2005 | San Diego | Accident | 2 citations | $4,170 $5,750 proposed | Oct 10, 2006 |
| Sep 21, 2001 | Burbank | Accident | 3 citations | $600 $1,310 proposed | May 30, 2002 |
Also recorded as: Southwest Airlines Company; Southwest Airlines; Southwest Airlines CO; Southwest Airlines - Baggage Office.
The rules this employer was cited under
- 8 CCR 3203, Injury and Illness Prevention Program: 7 citations, $1,510
- 8 CCR 3650, Industrial trucks, operating rules: 5 citations, 2 serious, $29,750
- 8 CCR 6151, Portable fire extinguishers: 4 citations, $1,885
- 8 CCR 342, Reporting serious injuries and deaths: 3 citations, $8,750
- 8 CCR 3362, General sanitation requirements: 3 citations, $600
- 8 CCR 3395, Heat illness prevention, outdoor: 3 citations, $520
- 8 CCR 3999, Hand tools: 2 citations, 1 serious, $6,250
- 8 CCR 3668, Powered industrial trucks, training: 2 citations, $905
Accidents investigated
Local pages: Oakland employment lawyer, Sacramento employment lawyer, San Diego employment lawyer.
How to read this record
Each row is one inspection by Cal/OSHA (or, rarely, federal OSHA) of one worksite. Why is the reason it was opened. Penalty is the current figure after any appeal or settlement; where it was reduced, the amount the inspector first proposed is shown under it. "Serious" means a realistic possibility of death or serious harm; "willful" and "repeat" carry penalties up to $162,851 each.
Citations document that the employer was told, in writing, what the rule required and when. That knowledge is often the center of a retaliation case: a worker who complained about the hazard an inspector later cited, and was then fired or cut, has a Labor Code 6310 claim, with lost wages and attorney's fees.
Full explainer: how to read a Cal/OSHA record.
If you work, or worked, at Southwest Airlines CO.
Write down what you reported, to whom and when, and what changed afterward: shifts, pay, duties, write-ups. Request the inspection file from the Cal/OSHA district office using the activity number on the inspection page. An injury goes through workers' compensation; a firing, demotion or threat after a safety complaint or injury report is an employment claim with a one-year deadline at the Labor Commissioner (Labor Code 6310) and a longer one in court. Free, confidential review: (800) 371-3088 or send what you have.
Source: U.S. Department of Labor OSHA enforcement data, California inspections. Record last checked Nov 1, 2026. Back to the safety tracker.
About this data: Records come from the U.S. Department of Labor's OSHA enforcement datasets (inspection, violation, accident and accident injury tables), which carry Cal/OSHA's state-plan inspections alongside federal ones. We load every inspection of a California worksite opened since January 1, 2000 and refresh it weekly. Employer names, addresses and industry codes are as the inspecting office recorded them; similar names are grouped where they clearly refer to the same employer. A citation can be reduced, vacated or withdrawn on appeal, and an inspection can stay open for months, so a record can change. Penalties shown as "current" reflect the latest status in the federal file. This page is public information about the employer's regulatory record, not legal advice and not a statement that any person was harmed or any law broken beyond what the record states.