The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is responsible for enforcing airline safety rules and regulations, but recent events on Southwest Airlines, as well as Peter Greenberg’s CBS News investigation, raise questions about how effectively the government agency is doing its job.

When a hole in the fuselage ripped open in mid-air aboard Southwest Airlines Flight 812, forcing it to make an emergency landing at an Arizona military base as the cabin depressurized, this event may have seemed like déjà vu for airline safety experts.

After all, it was less than two years ago that another Southwest Airlines Boeing 737, the Baltimore-bound Flight 2298, suffered a similar problem and made an emergency landing in Charleston, West Virginia.

Both of these events followed a record FAA fine of more than $10 million issued in 2007 for Southwest’s failure to properly inspect the fuselages on its planes. But Southwest never actually paid the fine the FAA issued.

Are these fines ever paid in full? And when are they paid?

And most importantly, what message about airline safety does this send?

Watch Peter’s report on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric below or click here to read more about the situation on CBSNews.com.

Get more background on the spotty record of the FAA when it comes to safety inspections and Southwest Airlines with these related links on PeterGreenberg.com:

• New Problems Plague Aging Airline Fleets As Southwest Cancels Flights For Safety Inspections (April 2011)
• Hole in Fuselage Prompts Southwest To Inspect All 737s (July 2009)
• Travel Detective Blog: Airline Safety Starts With Maintenance (April 2008)
• Southwest Flew Unsafe Planes, FAA Under Fire (March 2008)
• Did Southwest Knowingly Risk Passenger Safety? (March 2008)
• FAA Inspection-gate Causes Flight Cancellations (March 2008)
• Southwest Suspended, FAA Employees Reassigned (March 2008)