TheShadow
6th May 2011, 08:56
Another Failed FAA Safety Program.
Air transport oversight program (ATOS) fails to perform; do we need another one? Updated: April 13th, 2011 12:51 PM Source;
- Issue - (Aircraft Maintenance Technology) (http://www.amtonline.com/publication/article.jsp?pubId=1&=13259)
By Stephen P. Prentice AMT Contributor
The Inspector General of the Department of Transportation has recently published, without fanfare, its report stating that the ATOS safety program started in 1998 has failed in its effort to implement a comprehensive safety and inspection process within the major Part 121 air carriers in our country. The report states, among other things, that FAA inspectors failed to complete more than 200 key inspections on time.
Now, one must recall that this ATOS system was introduced in 1998 as the safety system to end all safety systems. ATOS was designed to be a systematic approach to aircraft maintenance and safety. It was comprised of 96 elements, categorized as high, medium, or low in criticality. The high elements were supposed to be assessed twice a year, medium elements once a year, and low element items every three years … simple enough, but it was necessary to access the data through something called ACAT, the Air Carrier Assessment Tool, which was a system set up for the inspectors to periodically reassess all of the elements to see how safety risks were being handled and where the high risk areas were. Unfortunately, the system has never worked the way it was designed. The inspectors could not use it effectively, and the air carriers were mired in paperwork, and they still are, to get anything like a system safety approach. Well what else is new?
much more at the link above
Air transport oversight program (ATOS) fails to perform; do we need another one? Updated: April 13th, 2011 12:51 PM Source;
- Issue - (Aircraft Maintenance Technology) (http://www.amtonline.com/publication/article.jsp?pubId=1&=13259)
By Stephen P. Prentice AMT Contributor
The Inspector General of the Department of Transportation has recently published, without fanfare, its report stating that the ATOS safety program started in 1998 has failed in its effort to implement a comprehensive safety and inspection process within the major Part 121 air carriers in our country. The report states, among other things, that FAA inspectors failed to complete more than 200 key inspections on time.
Now, one must recall that this ATOS system was introduced in 1998 as the safety system to end all safety systems. ATOS was designed to be a systematic approach to aircraft maintenance and safety. It was comprised of 96 elements, categorized as high, medium, or low in criticality. The high elements were supposed to be assessed twice a year, medium elements once a year, and low element items every three years … simple enough, but it was necessary to access the data through something called ACAT, the Air Carrier Assessment Tool, which was a system set up for the inspectors to periodically reassess all of the elements to see how safety risks were being handled and where the high risk areas were. Unfortunately, the system has never worked the way it was designed. The inspectors could not use it effectively, and the air carriers were mired in paperwork, and they still are, to get anything like a system safety approach. Well what else is new?
much more at the link above