Southwest Airlines under scrutiny after wave of storm cancellations

The US Department of Transportation said it will look into flight cancellations by Southwest Airlines that have left travelers stranded at airports across the country amid an intense winter storm that has killed dozens of people.

Many airlines were forced to cancel flights due to the weather, but Southwest was by far the leader in canceled flights. About 4,000 domestic U.S. flights were cancelled Monday, according to the tracking website FlightAware, and 2,900 of those were Southwest's.

Problems at Southwest continued Tuesday, and the airline warns it will be operating at a reduced scheduled for days.

Other major airlines, including American, United, Delta and JetBlue, suffered cancellations rates of between none and 2% Tuesday. The cancellation rate at Southwest Airlines was 62%, according to FlightAware, after the airline cancelled more that 70% of its flights Monday.

Southwest spokesman Jay McVay said at a press conference in Houston that cancellations snowballed as storm system