More Broken Safety Rules!

I have an idea, lets charge the airlines for all their "baggage". This time its American Airlines that has been caught flying planes that were in need of repair. The FAA plans on fining the airline. Now these breaches of protocol in plane maintenance are from 2007, prior and not new in the sense that they did not happen in the months after other airlines have been fined. As a passenger, it does not give me confidence in the FAA as well. Why is it taking so long to find these lapses? That in itself is almost as bad as the infractions themselves. We can only hope that due to the recent findings and fines that things like this will not happen again in the future.