Human Factors in Aviation

    In aviation, human factors are known as the most common factors that can lead to errors during a flight or aviation related activity. Humans are not perfect, and therefore prone to making mistakes during even the most routine aviation activities. In fact, Boeing claims that "approximately 80 percent of airplane accidents are due to human error" and only 20 percent from true mechanical failure (Boeing, 2008). Due to this statistic, there are methods in place to help mitigate the inherent risk of human factors while flying. One of these is crew resource management (CRM). Crew resource management is "the effective use of all available resources for flight crew personnel to assure a safe and efficient operation, reducing error, avoiding stress and increasing efficiency" (Skybrary). The benefits of CRM is that it relies on all members of a flight crew to each identify potential and existing threats and problems and communicate with the rest of the crew to develop a proper solution to mitigate the risk of human error. 

    Challenges to CRM are largely human error related (a tad ironic). One major one is a crew member not speaking up about a problem for fear of being incorrect or ridiculed by fellow crew members. Not brining up a problem can be devastating during a flight because it had the potential to snowball in to a bigger problem that could put the lives of everyone aboard in jeopardy. An example of this took place in 1982 during a jet's takeoff from Washington National Airport. "Ice in a sensor caused the speed indicators to read too high, leading the captain to apply too little power as the plane ascended" (APA, 2014). The first officer noted that things didn't feel right and that he felt like they were going slow, but when the captain brushed off his concerns, the first officer did not mention the problem again. The plane ended up stalling and killing all but five passengers that were on board. Perhaps if the first officer had been more adamant about his concern, then the captain would have increased power, or aborted the takeoff and everyone would have survived. It can be seen that even systems in place to mitigate the risk of human factors can be subject to the dangers of human factors themselves. It is very important to constantly be analyzing your situation and taking into consideration the concerns of your crew in order to maintain optimal safety.

References:

APA. (2014). Safer air travel through Crew Resource Management. American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/topics/safety-design/safer-air-travel-crew-resource-management

Rankin, W. (2008). MEDA Investigation Process. Aero - Meda Investigation process. https://www.boeing.com/commercial/aeromagazine/articles/qtr_2_07/article_03_1.html#:~:text=MEDA%20is%20a%20structured%20process,which%20are%20under%20management%20control.

Skybrary. (n.d.). Crew Resource Management (CRM). SKYbrary Aviation Safety.  https://skybrary.aero/articles/crew-resource-management-crm