Human Factors in Aviation

 

This can be described as understanding human capabilities and limitations and how they affect decision making and performance while on the job. There is a lot of room for errors when it comes to us as humans performing our day-to-day jobs. Understanding human factors and how they can affect a specific aviation activity can help us identify the issues when they arise and correct them or even address them before they become a problem. The overall goal is to get the job done correctly and safely, protecting equipment and personnel while creating an environment that encourages maximum safety and minimize the effect of human factors.

            Some challenges a maintenance team could face whilst replacing a landing gear could be fatigue, level of knowledge, stress, procedural compliance and the aircraft being grounded waiting on this maintenance task to be accomplished. Some causes of fatigue could be due to lack of sleep, drinking, family, stress, extended work hours, pressure from management to get the aircraft air worthy. Humans have limits. Lack of proper rest affects you physically; it also affects your decision making, and your communication capabilities. Fatigue can cause a mechanic to miss a step during a procedure, which speaks to procedural compliance and the result of this could be disastrous. Level of knowledge can lead to complacency and the lack of knowledge is an ongoing challenge especially for new mechanics or when working on new systems.  

 

How do we get through these challenges?

            Whenever human factor challenges arise during any given task, maintenance teams must be able to identify and safely overcome them. We all have limits and training personnel on how to identify when a team member is at or close to their limit could be the saving factor. Experienced mechanics must pass on their knowledge and also teach procedural compliance. Fatigue must be addressed daily for everyone on the team. If one person fails, this could lead to a domino effect and the whole organization may be affected. Managing team members and knowing how each member performs during different situations is one way to get peak performance out of your team.

Fatigue symptom checklist

  

References

https://www.hf.faa.gov/role.aspx

https://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/maintenance_hf/fatigue/multimedia

https://www.faa.gov/tv/?mediaid=400

 WC 354.

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