- Human factors is a rigorous scientific discipline that provides practical solutions to operational challenges
- Is concerned with the interface between humans, their work and their socio-technical aviation environment
- Strive to understand the behaviour of flight crew and other essential workers that contribute to the element of risk and safety in an aviation environment
Human factors Introduction and HistoryThere has been a growing appreciation of the way the humans contribute to accidents. In the aviation industry it is now thought that 70 – 80% of accidents have a Human factors element.
Accidents or incidents can be defined as “an unplanned chain of events which has or could have caused injury or death and/or damage to property, environment or reputation”
Note the ‘chain of events’ reference. It is good to see that we are moving away from ‘pilot error’ to an area defined y such people as James Reason as several events lining up , eventually leading to an incident, including latent errors (those that stay in the system to cause problems later eg: engineers fitting the wrong sized bolts in the windscreen of an aircraft) and active errors (those that have an immediate effect eg: Pilot turning off the wrong engine).
In other words there needs to be several breached or missing controls and defences starting from the design stage to the pilot in the cockpit.
Event Chain also referred in some publications as Incident Trajectory.
Research acknowledges that there is a lot to learn, in a reactive way, from accidents, but it also recognises that unsafe acts or active failures can be reduced using tools aimed at modifying human behaviour.
To apply a medical analogy, working pro-actively is akin to being vaccinated for the pneumonia virus instead of treating the illness when it occurs.
In conclusion – the study of Human factors considers all those aspects that make us human, our behaviours and interactions and how we can endeavour to recognise characteristics and put in place defences to ensure a safer environment when we fly.
