The Influence of Human Factor in Aircraft Maintenance (original) (raw)
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Illustration of How Human Factors Affect Aircraft Maintenance Safety and Quality
2017
Human factor is one of the safety hindrances which is used as a part of counteracting accidents or incidents of aircraft. Therefore, the question is which degree the error caused by human factor is incorporated into the share of errors that are made at the time of aircraft maintenance. Aviation safety relies upon limiting error in all aspects of the system. Aviation maintenance and inspection tasks are sections of a complex organization, where individuals undertake varied tasks in a situation with time pressures, exiguous feedback, fatigue, workload and sometimes challenging ambient conditions. These situational attributes, in combination with generic human error tendencies, result in varied forms of error. In worst-case it results in accidents and fatalities. Maintenance and inspection errors have serious consequences such as air turn-backs, delays, gate returns, diversions to alternate air terminals and in worst case accident may happen. This will decrease productivity and efficiency of the airline operations and inconvenience on passengers. In this thesis paper effects of human factors on Aircraft maintenance safety and quality will be illustrated significantly.
Human Factors in Aircraft Maintenance
Human error is cited as a major causal factor in most aviation mishaps, including the 15% -20% that involve maintenance error. Errors can be described as active failures that lead directly to the incident, and latent failures whose presence provokes the active failure. Typical aviation maintenance errors are presented as examples and two approaches to human error reduction given: incident based and task analysis based. Each approach provides data on performance shaping factors, i.e. situation variables that affect the probability of error occurrences. Examples are given of interventions derived from analysis of incidents and from task analysis.
Capturing Hazards and Eradicating Human Errors in Aircraft Maintenance
Review of the Air Force Academy, 2015
This research paper focuses on specific issues of the aircraft maintenance environment and pleads for a systematic approach in managing human errors. With a continuously growing number of airplanes in service, the maintenance operations are becoming more complex both from increased complexity of the aircraft technology and from the operational perspective. Recent studies show that 80% of the aircraft accidents have as a main cause human error. Maintenance errors play a very important role in this percentage and this is why is significant for the industry to find solutions which can reduce their frequency. It is estimated by certain studies that for every flight hour there are attributed approximately 12 man-hours of maintenance [1]. The paper considers the importance of the maintenance in safe operation of the aircraft and highlights the related maintenance aspects starting with aircraft design phase and continuing with normal maintenance operations. A vital role in avoiding maintenance errors is a proactive approach consisting in identifying hazards in maintenance environment, investigating the issues and proposing solutions to avoid such issues to escalate in undesired outcomes as incidents or accidents. Finally, some mitigation strategies for specific risks in aviation maintenance environment are presented to eliminate and, were not possible, to diminish the human errors.
Investigating the investigations: a retrospective study in the aviation maintenance error causation
Cognition, Technology & Work, 2012
In this paper, the impact of human reliability on aviation maintenance safety is investigated. Its purpose is to explore the actual mechanisms of maintenance errors initialization and propagation and hence to identify requisite characteristics for future solutions. Aviation maintenance errors account for between 12 and 15% of the global aviation accidents initiators, and this proportion rises to 23% when serious incidents are included. A wider global exercise of aviation maintenance safety improvement activities is consequently required. The current research applies the human error risk management in engineering systems (HERMES) methodology that conceptualizes two main streams of study: a retrospective investigation into human errors within aviation maintenance contexts, which is the main subject of this paper, and an ensuing prospective innovation of new tools that work to prevent future errors occurring. An extended fresh inquiry and a deeper data-mining process were concomitantly conducted. A new model signifying the initiation, accumulation, and propagation of crucial maintenance human errors within aviation maintenance organizations is thus introduced. Rotorcrafts are taken as a focal case study due to the high criticality naturally associated with their structural and operational characteristics.
Human factors in aviation maintenance: how we got to where we are
2000
Human factors in aviation maintenance: how we got to where we are Abstract Human factors in aviation has traditionally concentrated on aircrew and air tra$c control errors, but the increasing number of maintenance and inspection errors has seen the rise of human factors research and interventions in this area. This paper provides the rationale for such work and gives an overview of the domain, both of which may not be familiar to human factors and ergonomics practitioners. The papers in this special issue are placed into the context of the human factors tools they employ and the interventions they develop, showing that most are extensions of existing techniques applied to a domain with a distinctive culture and unique challenges. Finally, recent advances, beyond the research represented by fully developed papers, are outlined to enable the reader to locate current and future work in this "eld.
AeroSafety world, 2008
This presentation is to be used to debrief the video, " The Human Factors in Aircraft Maintenance " , and highlight the importance of the " Dirty Dozen " and HFACS-ME (Human Factors Analysis and Classification System-Maintenance Extension). This film was initially created to provide an example case for the " Dirty Dozen ". However, the factors described in this accident also need to be reported and further analyzed, along with past and future accident and incident reports, for possible trends that may lead to future errors, incidents, and accidents. HFACS-ME provides that capability. HFACS-ME's Framework incorporates all of the " Dirty Dozen's " elements and allows a method to further classify errors into a total of 34 separate categories. HFACS-ME, if used as part of an organization's standard investigation and reporting system, can more thoroughly investigate, report, and analyze accidents and incidents.
A review of human error in aviation maintenance and inspection
International Journal of Industrial …, 2000
Aviation safety depends on minimizing error in all facets of the system. While the role of #ightdeck human error has received much emphasis, recently more attention has been directed toward reducing human error in maintenance and inspection. Aviation maintenance and inspection tasks are part of a complex organization, where individuals perform varied tasks in an environment with time pressures, sparse feedback, and sometimes di$cult ambient conditions. These situational characteristics, in combination with generic human erring tendencies, result in varied forms of error. The most severe result in accidents and loss of life. For example, failure to replace horizontal stabilizer screws on a Continental Express aircraft resulted in in-#ight leading-edge separation and 14 fatalities. While errors resulting in accidents are most salient, maintenance and inspection errors have other important consequences (e.g., air turn-backs, delays in aircraft availability, gate returns, diversions to alternate airports) which impede productivity and e$ciency of airline operations, and inconvenience the #ying public. This paper reviews current approaches to identifying, reporting, and managing human error in aviation maintenance and inspection. As foundation for this discussion, we provide an overview of approaches to investigating human error, and a description of aviation maintenance and inspection tasks and environmental characteristics. Relevance to industry Following an introductory description of its tasks and environmental characteristics, this paper reviews methods and tools for identifying, reporting, and managing human error in aviation maintenance and inspection. 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Springer eBooks, 2007
Previous research in aviation maintenance has highlighted the need to understand normal practice in order to advance the potential impact of Human Factors and bring aviation to a new safety level. What to do with this information then is crucial. What is presented here is an approach to do this, to use this information in such a way that it becomes key to safety and process improvement. This approach is currently being developed within the European funded HILAS project.
2021
While looking at Human Factors in the aviation and aerospace industry, there has always been a clear relationship between the technological assets that go into maintaining airworthiness standards, and the humans that upkeep these standards. Looking at airside operations in the field of aircraft maintenance engineering, there have been various incidents and accidents that have been caused by the influence of inadequate human factors considerations on aircraft maintenance personnel. With an understanding of the FAA's Dirty Dozen (and its impact in aircraft maintenance), this paper aims to highlight as well as analyze the link that human factors has on the personnel that ensure the continued airworthiness of aircraft all across the world, and evaluate how these factors can affect the effectivity and efficiency of maintenance operations/tasks. Through the course of this paper, there will be further insight to indicate various lapses in judgement due to the lack of awareness and increase in complacency of maintenance personnel, and indicate how it could've been avoided if more streamlined human factors procedures were implemented into line and base maintenance engineering.