American Airlines’ $24.2 million fine a sweet deal?

The $24.2 million fine that the Federal Aviation Administration is proposing against American Airlines could have been bigger.

The maximum civil penalty for violating a federal aviation regulation is $25,000.

The FAA is accusing American of operating 286 airplanes on 14,278 flights in which the aircraft "did not meet the requirements of an airworthiness directive."

That would be $356.95 million -- $25,000 a violation X 14,278 flights.

But the FAA says American violated two different FARs when it operated those flights. So that's a second violation that alleges American operating those flights "when the aircraft were not in an airworthy condition."

So that would be $713.9 million -- $25,000 a violation X 14,278 flights X 2 FARs violated.

But wait -- there's more. The FAA said the carrier didn't maintain the airplanes as prescribed by the manufacturer or FAA. We don't know if that's one violation or another 14,278 violations.

Let's just say it was $25,000, which keep the total just under $714 million.

That means that the FAA's proposed fine is only 3.4 percent of what it could have been.

However, we don't think American officials are celebrating a $24.2 million fine.

(My apologies for accidently putting billions rather than millions in an earlier version of this item.)

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