Air Transportation Oversight System (ATOS)
The Federal Aviation Administration initiated a new and innovative way of inspecting the nation's airlines. It is designed to identify safety trends in order to spot and correct problems at their root cause before an accident occurs.
The program, called the Air Transportation Oversight System (ATOS), began with the nation's 10 largest airlines -- which handle 95% of U.S. passengers -- and will ultimately include all U.S. airlines. FAA inspectors now look at an airline as a whole, to see how the many elements of its operations -- from aircraft to pilots to maintenance facilities to flight dispatch to cabin safety-- interact to meet federal standards.
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