The Future of Human Factors in Aviation

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).

“Human error is responsible for the majority of aviation disasters. ... Such factors can include pilot fatigue from not getting enough sleep, distractions within or outside the cockpit, and simple design choices for the aircraft or spacecraft that make human mistakes more likely.” (Discovery) Many of the human errors in aviation today are caused by common occurrences in the human interaction part of flight, and that if eliminated, will reduce the chance of airplane accidents. In aviation, the underlying cause of machinery and human error is caused by either how well it can be built or the amount of training a pilot can go through. In an event of an accident, a whole list of certain checkpoints are reviewed and looked over. The foremost system reviewed is the human inputs, these are the most important yet uncontrollable parts of any incident. The video Why Planes Crash identifies the need to question not only the pilots actions, but anything that could’ve influenced those actions.(pg.375)

American Airlines Flight 1420 is the aircraft that I will be writing about in this essay. It is classified as a runway overrun accident. The department that investigated the accident was the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). Human factors will be the focus in this project by using the Human Factor Analysis and Classification System (HFAC) Model. I will be focusing on two different human factor areas and relate those to the chain of event that caused the aircraft to overrun the runway.

“The human being is set apart from all other animals by an intelligent, reasoning mind. Another quality that humans seem to possess is an inherent drive to utilize that mind to achieve to recognize challenges and to attempt conquer them” (Smith, 1992, p. 1). One of my favorite person that I used to read about in high school was Benjamin Franklin; one of the founding Father of the United States of America and the master mind behind the invention of electricity. As stated in the words of Smith, the curiosity of Franklin lead him to discover how electricity works. This same driven factor of human mind was what led the Wrights Brother to invent and fly the first power aircraft. The four forces that are acting on an aircraft in flight are: Lift, Weight, Thrust and Drag.

The movement of millions of passengers over distances thought impossible decades ago is symbolic of the modern air transportation era that is characterized by speed, comfort and personal convenience. The commerce of aviation, both the operation of commercial aircraft for profit and the development of aeronautical systems, is also an important symbol of national prestige and a powerful economic force. Safety in air transportation is therefore a matter of significant national importance.

The NextGen Air Transportation System is a complex, revolutionary redevelopment of the broad U.S. air traffic control system that includes many challenging and interrelated components and concepts, including a fundamental transfer from a RADAR, ground-based system to a GPS, satellite-based system. Its multi-year implementation, touches virtually every aspect of aviation operations. As such, it presents many potential human factors challenges that can potentially directly affect aviation safety. Next, I will creatively apply the knowledge of human factors and aviation safety that I have developed over the

Airplanes make traveling long distances extremely convenient. Whereas a cross country trip via car can take days upon days to complete, an airplane trip is much faster. With so many people turning to air travel for even short distances, the likelihood that accidents will occur is only

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.

Flight 1420 of American Airlines claimed the lives of 11 passengers on June 1, 1999. From the NTSB report one can conclude that there were several human factors that contributed to the accident of American Airlines flight 1420. Examples include unsafe acts by the pilots, violations that represent a willful disregard for the rules and regulations that govern safe flight as well as fatigue and substandard practices of operators which in this case include communication and coordination between the pilots and the air traffic controller. This paper will talk about these

A pilot’s career doesn’t just start up as soon as he takes the license, but it’s a start of a long way that would be accompanied with technological advancements and multiple trainings to be on top of things since its well known that a high percentage of accidents are usually human based. Training pilots is one factor that has to be balanced by decision-making skills such as a great pilot judgment. The issue of pilot decision making has a great impact on the safety of aviation, hence our aim here is to help the pilot’s in improving their decision making skills in accordance with mitigating risks that accompany each flight.

When the Wright brothers decided to aim for the first flight, flight in general, they looked back at previous work of those before them. Conclusions made from literature about the problem of mechanics and human flight states, that

The advances in technology has an enormous effect on society since the invention of the telephone. However, technological advances have brought great mishaps as well. The invention of the auto-pilot function has changed the way us humans travel by air. This invention saves time and money from training future pilots. On the other hand, is that a good thing? In an essay from Nicolas Carr called “The Great Forgetting”, He notes that the invention of auto-pilot may be a more of a step down than a step up in the technology world. It was February 12, 2009 when the Q400 crashed into a small house in Buffalo, New York. As the pilot was well into landing the plane, a malfunction in the flaps resulted in the disconnection of the auto-pilot. Instead of preventing the plane to go into a “stall”, the pilot caused one “by doing precisely the wrong thing: jerking back the yoke instead of pushing forward to gain velocity”. Another similar incident occurred on May 31, when a plane malfunctioned and the pilot did not know what to do once autopilot was cut off, resulting in the death of all passengers of the plane. “Overuse of automation erodes pilots’ expertise and dulls their reflexes, leading to what Jan Noyes, an ergonomics expert at Britain’s University of Bristol, terms “de-skilling of the crew.”.”

nature of man, how he operates in the cockpit, and what must be done by

Flight, flight is a very interesting subject. Since the very beginning of the human race we have been fascinated with flight. Before we understood the physics behind what allowed objects to fly we attached feathers to our arms and flung ourselves off of cliffs in a desperate attempt to recreate what we saw birds do every day. What were we seeking? The freedom, the freedom to be able to soar over any obstacles with ease, to not be confined to going wherever the terrain allows us to. With the understanding of physics came the first flying machines, hot air balloons, the first one flying over france in 1793. The problem with balloons being that they were slow, hard a maneuver, they just didn’t provide the freedom, only allowed a second option for transportation with a whole new set of challenges that came along with it.

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: