Human Factors Within Aviation

Human factors within aviation

There are more than 70 percentages of aviation accidents around the world are owing to the unreasonable human performance. Human factors had become the primary concern in airplane maintenance practices and air traffic management. The harmonious, professional and coordinated relationship between engineers, pilots, and mechanics and the sufficient knowledge, skills about the interface between human performance and commercial airplanes are recognized as the way to help operators improve the safety and efficiency during their daily operations.

Wiener&Nagel(1988) define the human factors as the mistakes or errors that result from the inappropriate behaviors of the human. Human factors are recognized as the most crucial concept in the aviation industry, according to civil aviation authority, aircraft accidents around the world attract more attention from related associations to address human factors issues under the safety-dominate environment of aviation. As human factors are difficult to manage compared with other factors of aircraft errors and benefitting regulation establishment. Hence, Human mistakes have become the most concern worry regarding aviation management.(Salas.et.al,2010). According to Maurino.et.al(1995), the human factors are the agilest, convertible and treasured part of the airline environment whereas being also the most vulnerable element. Although the deeper investigation of the human factors toward aviation has limited ability to prevent a variety of aviation accidents successfully, the human mistakes have potential influences toward aviation accidents. For instance, the deleterious drawbacks of the aircraft design, insufficiently necessary training, erroneous working procedures of airline employees or incongruous airline operating guides and rules. Moreover, the rational awareness of human factors within aviation can significantly lead to improved quality of aircraft maintenance, a coordinated airline operation environment that enable enhanced aircraft safety, and the more responsible worker(Salas.et.al,2010).

Regarding the modern study of the aviation safety, human mistakes are the vital element that could be the exploring point for prevention of the aviation accidents. At the early research stage, the one of concentration is the integration of human factors with the aircraft, which is the typical social-technical relationship. The mistakes because of system failure(such as inadequate instrument and notices of the airline operation) declined via the more reasonable design of the pilot cabin interface( Maurino.et.al,1995). The understanding of the human factors enables senior leader of airline management to predict the human abilities and limitations and employ effective measurement to minimize the possibilities of aviation accidents. For another early research of human factors of aviation, the several human bodies of factors such as noise, extreme temperature, drastic vibrations and dynamic accelerations are recognized as possible factors that negatively impact the performance of the pilots(Maurino.et.al,1995). From this point of view, the professional aviation maintenance engineers, airline pilots and quality of aircraft system are three primary elements that will influence the several unique human factors, which possibly leads to excessive flying heights, wrong perdition of the weather conditions, noise level, vibration degree. With the continue research efforts, the human factors towards aviation have attracted attention from several airline management associations. Salas.et.al(2010) identify various examples, which demonstrate the training, comprehensive risk assessments, careful safety inspections of human factors within aviation can save much unnecessary money, avoid missed deadlines, reduce warranty claims and the series of avoidable accidents, which minimizes the human injuries, deaths and wealth loss, lessening harmful fears from the public. It means that the human errors cannot be eliminated, but it is manageable, which could be visible and identified before the detrimental consequences occur.

Johnson& Maddox(2007) define the PEAR model, which is the rational method to gain the understanding of human factors toward aviation. The PEAR model includes people who undertake the jobs; the specified environment people work in; every action people conduct and available, and resource to facilitate the working process(Hsiao,2010). For the people part of the model, it tends to address physical, physiological, psychological, and psychosocial factors; the corporation should consider the physical ability of the pilots, which ensure they can perform the assigned flight missions. Yang&Fan(2016) state that it is not only limited to physical size, sex, age, attitudes, experience, knowledge and emotional status but also cover strengthens, interpersonal communication capability, teamwork skills, lifestyle and sensory limitation. For example, In 1982, an airplane of B-737 crashed after take-off at Washington airport, resulting in 39 people dead, which is primarily due to the erroneous engine thrust readings and inadequate assertiveness in communicating among team members(Wiegmann&Shappell,2001). The experienced pilots with precious knowledge and ability towards aviation operation can lead to the victims of getting diverted. When the airplane has problems, the knowledgeable pilot can interpret rightly, either to the reasonable decision or wrong actions(Yang&Fan,2016). From the “dirty dozen” of twelve human factors(Gheytanchi.et.al,2007), the complacency is also a human factor in aviation, which happen in the situation of the workers gains knowledge and experience, then a sense of self-satisfaction and false confidence, under that situation, they could make the wrong decisions, although they may receive adequate, correct information and data. Besides, Maurino.et.al(1995) stat that differences in technology from aircraft to aircraft and updates to technology and procedures also pose challenges to the pilots and technicians. As a consequence, it is imperative for aviation corporation to incorporate human physical and psychosocial factors into job design and strictly select pilots based on job design, concern about ongoing monitoring and coaching regarding psychological and psychosocial human factors monitor and provide comprehensive training or mentoring programs to aviation workers when necessary as well. The environment contains both psychical environment and organizational environment; the psychical environment may include temperature, the level of humidity, noise, and lighting(Johnson& Maddox,2007). Take one typical example, In 1974, an airplane of B-707 crashed at Pago-Pago in Samoa, resulting in 96 people dead, which is mainly because of a visual illusion related to the black-hole phenomenon(Wiegmann&Shappell,2001). In this case, the psychical environment of the flight was modified with no indicators, which caused aviation accidents. Hence, Aviation-related associations and corporations should recognize the current working environment and future workforce condition requirements, which could directly impact the airline performance and predict the possible events may happen during flight. The organizational environment tends to be less intangible, which includes company culture, the shared corporation value, approach of mutual communication. For aviation industry, the safety culture is extremely crucial for the company to foster, which means every worker in an organization understand their role towards the overall mission of safety(Hsiao,2010). For instance, In 1977, two airplanes of B-747s collided at Tenerife, leading 583 dead, which are mainly due to the unreasonable communication procedures, neglect of the safety culture and misinterpretation of verbal messages from the ground control(Wiegmann&Shappell,2001). In addition to this, the actions that aviation workers undertake can determine the quality of their work, which directly impacts the aircraft performance. Salas.et.al(2010) argue that adequate preparation is one of critical action for the safety flight, during the preflight operations, the careful attentions towards details information and data of airplane and aviation operation is rewarding, it means that the checking of any maintenance differences is the main tasks in the preflight process. Investigators may face a situation that pushed him to react beyond his experience and knowledge, possibly leading to crash. According to Johnson& Maddox(2007), job task analysis is recognized as the vital tool to identify the necessary resource, instructions, procedure guide, knowledge, skills, and attitudes to perform flight working mission. For example, in 1974, a airplane of B-727 crashed at Dulles Airport in Washington, leading 92 people dead, which are primarily due to the unclear and inadequate air traffic control rules and regulations and the missing of timely decisions and actions from authority of the ground air traffic control center to resolve the identified issues in resources and guidance((Wiegmann&Shappell,2001). Fatigue is recognized the primary distracted human factor that resulting in several wrong actions of workers, which results in aviation accidents. Fatigue can be either mental or physical naturally. A person who is fatigue could have the lower cognitive ability, decision-making ability, required reaction time, coordination, speed, strength, and balance, which reduces a person’s ability to focus and pay 100% of attention(Gheytanchi.et.al,2007). The source of the human mistakes can also stem from the improper design of equipment and procedures. The resources are dictated by the people, environment, and actions, which is the critical support to avoid aviation accidents. An example of resources is the number of and qualifications of staffs and the allowed time to get the job done. s. For example, if an airplane is dispatched without a functioning system, it could easily lead to aviation accidents.