e is actually using those systems.-In the past, flight standards typically allocated a large portion of its inspection resources to thousans of unstructural inspections that produced few reports of problems. We reported last year, for example, that inspectors reported no problems for 96% of the inspections thye conducted in fiscal years 1990 through 1996.-Past concerns also included problems with inspectors’ training. Specifically inspectors have performed inspections for which they did not have appropriate or current credentials, in part because of limited finding for training. Providing adequate technical training for FAA’s inspector work force has proven difficult because of the rapid change in aviation technology.-Airlines can meet regulatory requirements in a variety of ways, making it difficult for FAA’s inspectors who inspect many different airlines to be familiar sometimes resulted in airlines’ being unfairly cited for noncompliance.-Finally, our review of aircraft repair facilities noted that individual inspectors generally identify far fewer deficiencies that teams do. The unstructured inspection activities and the underreporting of violations by inspectors resulted in inaccurate, incomplete, and inconsistent information that was not very useful for analyzing safety risks or targeting the agency’s resources to the problems that pose the greatest risks.-FAA also included several features in ATOS to address past concerns about inspectors’ training by more effectively linking inspectors’ technical training and qualifications to their job responsiblities. First, FAA designed ATOS to link inspection assignments to the technical background of each inspector and to identify any additional technical training needed to accomplish the work plan. Second, inspectors assigned to an airline, including field inspectors, must complete training on both ATOS and the airline’s specific police...
