Email from Nicholas Sabatini

Dear Safety Colleague:

We have asked our Principal Maintenance Inspectors to begin an in-depth review of your program for compliance with airworthiness directives (AD's). One carrier's noncompliance with AD's makes it necessary for us to validate our system for overseeing your management of this regulatory requirement.

By the end of last year, we transitioned the air carrier industry to the Air Transportation Oversight System — a systems-based approach to ensuring compliance with regulations. ATOS emphasizes the importance of an air carrier's responsibility to have processes that effectively manage regulatory requirements — like the requirement to comply with AD's. We remain committed to using our oversight system to identify hazards and mitigate risks. This in-depth review will assure us — and you — that we have sufficient data to evaluate the AD system.

To validate the effectiveness of your system, inspectors will audit a sample of AD's that applies to your fleet. By March 28, 2008, they will complete review of 10 AD's per fleet. In total, they will complete a review of 10% of the AD's applicable to your fleet.

I know you share our commitment to the safety of the fleet and I expect your full cooperation with this audit.

Sincerely,
Nick Sabatini