-The National Transportation Safety Board’s statistics show an accident rate of 5 fatal accidents for each 10 million flights on scheduled and nonscheduled service by U.S. airlines operating under part 121 of the Federal Aviation Regulations from 1982 through 1998.-Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is responsible for examining an airline’s operations when the airline seeks a certificate to operate and for conduction periodic inspections to ensure continued complained with safety regulations.-FAA has nearly 3300 safely inspectors located in 101 district offices throughout the U*S. One of the inspector’ primary functions is conducting what FAA calls “routine surveillance” – a process of continuous periodic safety inspections of airlines and aviation – related activities.-The inspections cover four main areas:-Operations inspections focus on such items as pilots’ certification and performance, flight crews’ training, and in-flight record keeping.Maintenance inspections examine an airline’s overall maintenance program, including the training of aviation mechanics, the development of maintenance manuals, and procedures for repairing aircraft and their components.Avionics inspections focus on electronic components of the aircraft.Cabin safety inspections concentrate on cabin procedures, passenger safety, and carry – on baggage.-Air Transportation Oversight System is largely reponsive to past concerns raised about key aspects of FAA’s aviation safety inspections and the usefulness of inspection data.-To inprove inspection qualtity, the new program emphasizes a system safety approach that goes beyond spot-chicking irlines for compliance with Federal Aviation Regulations. Using safety principles originally created for the nuclear industry, it calls for a systematic review of airlines’ policies and procedures to ensure that they incorporate basic safety priciple...
