I fully accept that Southwest dropped the ball in terms of inspections required under FAA regulations.. but if you look at this table perhaps you will see my point:
United States and Canada
Airline Rate Flights FLE* EventsLast
Air Canada +0.33 4.75M 1.583 1983
AirTran (ValuJet) 0.94 1.06M 1.001 1996
Alaska Airlines 0.33 6.13M 2.023 2000
Aloha Airlines 0.56 1.77M 1.001 1989
American Airlines **0.40 25.08M 10.0813 2004
American Trans Air 0.00 0.69M 0.000-
Continental Airlines **0.24 10.39 M2.476 2009
Delta Air Lines **0.17 24.8M 4.247 2006
Hawaiian Airlines 0.00 0.66M 0.000-
JetBlue Airlines 0.00 0.35M 0.000-
Midwest Express 1.92 0.52M 1.001 1985
Northwest Airlines **0.21 12.51M 2.614 1993
Southwest Airlines 0.00 15.26M 0.000-
United Airlines **0.31 21.9M 6.6911 2001(2)
US Airways **0.28 17.63 M4.979 2003
I would argue this is a pretty objective measure of the safety of an airline and Southwest's record is as I said "second to none".