FAA To Warehouse Safety Data
<B> FAA To Warehouse Safety Data</B>
By Barbara Cook
<I>Washington </I>- The Federal Aviation Administration has designed a new airline safety inspection process that allows government inspectors to use a central database of information from individual airlines to spot potential problems.
Already in development, the database will track emerging safety trends at each airline and direct inspectors to target their surveillance efforts based on that information. The system, which will be shared nationwide, will include inspection and safety performance information, the agency said.
Announcing the new system last week, Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater and FAA Administrator Jane Garvey said the ATOS system by year-end will begin raising safety standards above the current federal minimums and help the government achieve its stated goal of reducing aviation accidents by 80 percent over the next 10 years.
The first phase, launching in October, will enter information from Alaska, America West, American, Continental, Delta, Northwest, Southwest, TWA, United and US Airways, as well as any new entrant certified by FAA, into the database. Data from other airlines will be added by October 1999.
Although FAA said it will continue to take enforcement action against airlines that fail to comply with safety regulations, officials stressed that ATOS is intended to move the agency beyond the role of enforcer into a new level of tailored, extensive inspections.
Further, FAA explained, each airline will be assigned a specific Certificate Management Team to individually design an inspection program for that carrier. A second layer of regional inspectors will be trained on their assigned carrier's policies and procedures. Focused surveillance will take place throughout the year.
Currently, regional inspectors are assigned to several air carriers and do not receive specialized training. The airlines receive mandatory, scheduled inspections based on their level of operations, and additional checks are conducted at the discretion of FAA. The ATOS system, FAA stressed, will use a data-driven process that more effectively will monitor trends at individual airlines. Moreover, the agency said, the new system will replace inspector expertise with an integrated, team-based approach.
Once implemented, the system will be reviewed continuously to evaluate its effectiveness.