The Federal Aviation Administration has stated that aircraft manufacturers and airlines must intensify and streamline inspections of the metallic skeleton and skin of aircraft to ward off serious structural fatigue.
The rule finalised last Friday by US aviation regulators, covers prevention of fatigue cracking caused primarily by repeated changes in pressurisation.
Structural fatigue has been blamed for a number of incidents in recent years, including an aging seaplane crash in Florida that killed 20 people in 2005.