According to Rodrigues and Cusick (2012) humans are accountable for approximately 70-80% of aviation accidents (p.156). A majority of these are caused by the different variables associated with human performance. Psychological factors have a key role in a pilot’s everyday responsibility. Some of these traits include: perception, memory, attitude, judgment and decision making, as well as ego (Rodrigues & Cusick, 2012, p. 158-160). These qualities can have drastic effects in commercial aviation if they are not recognized and adjusted accordingly. In this paper I will respond to some questions that are raised in aviation safety: 1.) Can we stop the amount of human errors in aviation? 2.) Is training the problem? 3.) What is being done to slow down the number of errors/accidents? If we can find the answers to these questions, then I believe it is possible to limit and slow down the number of human errors in aviation, thusly slowing the number of accidents and lives lost due to human performance. Can We Stop the Amount of Human Errors? The reality of the situation is no. Humans are different and that is what makes us unique. We will always make mistakes and you cannot stop them. We all have different perceptions, memory capacities, attitudes, decision making skills, and egos. These qualities can be good or bad. Perception is a very important aspect in aviation. That is why pilots are instructed to read back to ATC (Air Traffic Control) in order for them to know that they
Pilots must be calm and prepare their routes carefully. At the same time, they must be willing to take risks.
Learning from the past is something that is integrated in today’s society, especially when lessons are potentially at the cost of lives. During the moments of a potential catastrophic event, panic and fear may temporarily inhibit the motor skills of individuals faced in life dependent situations. This elementary but crucial notion is one important example of why aerospace engineers design with high safety intent.
There are many aircraft accident factors in which investigators need to pursue in order to come to a good conclusion on what the cause or causes of an aircraft accident were. A portion of what the investigator looks into is the human factors surrounding the accident. This highly diverse and expansive area needs to be systematically looked into to figure out if any human factors were causation of an aircraft accident. One model that investigators utilize in order to sift through the human factors that may be attributable to an accident is the Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS) Model. This Model breaks down human factors into four different sections, organizational influences, unsafe supervision, preconditions for unsafe acts, and unsafe acts of operators. Throughout this case study, the accident of American Airlines flight 1420 will be dissected utilizing the HFACS Model to uncover human factors issues with the aircraft operator organization, aircraft flight crew, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Unsafe acts, attitudes and errors are addressed in this project by assessing the activities of the people involved in operating aircraft, airports, and other facilities. The operations of such individuals are likely to affect the outcomes differently for travelers and airlines. Varied attitudes towards issues like security and errors occurring in some processes may result in significant challenges to the enhancement of safety. These practices will be assessed in the research with a focus on how improvements
Any airline policy that says pilots should rely on automation rather than their own judgement should be repealed. Although some human factors can lead to a crash there is no better system to use than human intuition or your “gut feeling”.
While this statistic may seem impressive and was used by the magazine to urge people to know escape route when flying, there is no way to interview those who did not survive the crash to see if they also had an escape plan beforehand. This relates to the concept of automatic thinking, a factor of social cognition,
Everyday millions of people fly on airplanes. It is an easy and fast way of traveling for work, vacations or to see family members. Statically air travel is safer than traveling by car, airplanes have higher fatality accidents. The reasons airplanes crash vary and can happen during takeoff, landing or during flight. “August 1985 witnessed more passenger and crew deaths on commercial airlines than any other month.” [http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33931693.]
Traveling in air is a dangerous task that’s why aircraft engineers have been researching ways to improve security in airlines. Technological advances have resulted in automated cockpit procedures to make up for the human errors that usually occur (2000). Sixty eight percent of crashes are attributed to human error. This may include error during aircraft design, manufacturing, maintenance, or installation. Security breaches that result in terrorist activities can also be attributed to human error. This is the reason why technological innovations in safety are important in the airlines industry. Other technological factors include Customer Relation Management in the Internet.
Pilots and non pilots. We will explore three different aviation accidents that could have been prevented if the aircraft was maintained properly. And why pilots should make sure to do a thorough walk around of their aircraft. This is not to say that faulty maintenance was the cause of each of these accidents. There was pilot error reported in these accident investigations.
It is difficult for humans to continuously monitor something. It easy for the mind to wonder off and think about random thoughts. Carr incorporates the aspect of complacency when talking about the advanced autopilot systems now incorporated into today’s modern airliners. Carr provides an example from the Air France crash using quotes from the pilots, “This can’t be happening? said Robert.
The unsafe acts of all pilots can be directly linked to nearly 80% of all aviation accidents (Shappell, 2000). The military uses a modernized model Reason’s
“The report reviews several practices whose evidence came from the domains of commercial aviation, nuclear safety, and aerospace, and the disciplines of human factors, engineering and organizational theory. Such practices include root cause analysis, computerized physician order entry and decision support, auto-mated medication dispensing systems, bar coding technology, aviation-style preoperative checklists, promoting a ‘culture of safety,’ crew resource management, the use of simulators in training, and integrating human factors theory into the design of medical devices and alarms.”
Long after Leonardo da Vinci, human factors research originated with aviation (Salas et al., 2010). Once the pioneers of aviation began taking to the air, the quest for safety and efficiency began with an ever-increasing fervor. Aviation accidents have long been viewed as spectacular and with the spectacle of an accident comes the public outcry over safety. While not all human factors research deals with accidents, the majority of money put into the
Spatial Disorientation can be very dangerous when experienced in-flight for civil aviation or military aviation. In order to understand perfectly why prevention of spatial disorientation is mandatory, one of the main priorities is to understand the definition for ‘spatial disorientation’ in terms of aviation. When it comes to the definition, it can have a few definitions. It can be known as a condition where the pilot fails to match the perception of direction with true performance. However, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of the United States gives a more simplified definition for it which is when the pilot is incapable of telling which way is ‘up’ (FAA 1983).
Stress is an everyday reality in the aviation industry, especially to pilots. Pilots face different kinds of stress on the job. Overload and underload on pilots is common and has always been overlooked. As a result, poses a threat to aviation safety. The society should pay a considerable attention to this issue. This essay will discuss the effect of stress on pilot performance and ways to relief stress. It begins with definitions of stress, then it will mention the causes of stress. The essay then explores on the relevance to aviation industry. Finally, the essay will give suggestions on how to cope with stress. As a future commercial airline pilot, this topic has great relevance as stress could not be avoided in the aviation industry. It