We should understand now that it is an essential requirement, to not only pay attention to Human Factors but to develop organizational behaviour which minimize exposure. With the current rate of Aircraft Accidents being caused in 80% of cases by Human Action the need for HF training has never been stronger. In fact the future will see this trend move toward 90% – fortunately major accidents are occurring at a lower frequency – but we can never relax !
When we examine a number of incidents we see how a simple error can develop into a significant issue with sometimes fatal consequences. Within the maintenance environment there are a range of errors which occur and re – occur and we will consider which ones affect us.
There are a number of reasons we see violations and not all of them benefit the employee, often the reason that a violation occurs is due to a perception that it benefits the organization. The problem is that in creating a violation in the first place a risk assessment is not undertaken – whilst this may seem to be “over kill” countless examples occur where the final cost of an event may be measured in 10’s of 1000’s or even larger sums !
The implication of errors may range from a mild irritation to significant damage or even a fatality so it is important to consider as a positive anything which reduces the exposure for example Training, Management of Competence or the development of effective process & procedures.
As mentioned above there are behaviors which will reduce the overall exposure to Human Factor “events” and we should seek to maximize these in a positive way. Unfortunately Humans are anything but reliable, we make many mistakes, we are forgetful and fall into traps often of our own making. Therefore anything which we can do to improve reliability has to be considered a positive.
Checklists if used correctly may compensate for “forgetfulness” procedures which for example require verification checks also add to the overall safeguarding of Human exposure.
The ability to see correctly is essential especially within the maintenance environment – deficiencies within our eyesight if not identified may lead to miss performance. Having regular eye tests, (including for Colour Blindness) wearing correct glasses and ensuring adequate lighting is very important.
Hearing is connected with one of the major causes of Maintenance Error – Miss Communication. Apart from the fact that we need to take particular care of our Hearing we should also understand how it is possible to miss hear and as a result take the wrong or incorrect action.
Our ability to process information is only as good as capacity training knowledge and alert level to support the task – lots of opportunity here for Human Error. When we allow our minds to wander we are open to error and when we have pre conceived notions about what should happen we expose ourselves to Human error. We can become disorientated which affects our perception, various memory issues can have a direct bearing on our ability to correctly accomplish a task
Organisational factors, including Workload Management can lead to issues with pressure stress and motivation as well as issues with motivation.
Complacency and other related factors may have negative influences.
Sofema Aviation Services offers Human Factors Training for Initial and Recurrent Requirements. In addition through our Training for Trainers Program we support organisations to develop their own in house capability.
Please see www.sassofia.com or email office@sassofia.com
Tags:
Aircraft Accidents, HF training, Human Factor Training, Human Factors, Maintenance Error, Regulatory training, Train The Trainer
