Human Error and Aviation Accidents Involving Helicopters - Research Paper Example

The paper "Human Error and Aviation Accidents Involving Helicopters" is an excellent example of a research paper on psychology. The aim is to research aviation accidents and incorporate particular aircrew, ecological, administrative, and managerial aspects related to helicopter accidents with the help of “Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS)”. The HFACS is an application, which offers a means to assess the human factors related to accidents as well as incidents. HFACS provides a model to evaluate human factors related to incidents as well as accidents. In this regard, the title is “Human error and aviation accidents involving helicopters: an analysis employing the human factors analysis and classification system”. The background explains the theoretical framework including the Reason model and the HFCAS, which are human error analytical models. The Reason (1990) model preceded the HFACS to explain the accident causation, but it was inadequate because it failed to offer the level of detail crucial for applying it in the real world. Reason’s ideas became applicable in the aviation setting upon Shappell and Wiegmann's (2000 and 2001) creation of an all-inclusive framework for human error called HFACS thereby folding the previous ideas into the applied mode. The method of the study included reviewing previous literature on helicopter accidents as they related to human factors. The literature reviewed the history of helicopters and provided some examples of helicopter accidents resulting from human error. From the literature reviewed, there was clear evidence that the claim that 70-80% of aviation accidents result from human error is true. In addition, the analysis was done using the HFCAS from data extracted from “National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)” as well as the “Federal Aviation Administration,” and the results indicated the same.

Helicopter accident data from the calendar years between 2000 and 2007 were obtained from the NTSB and FAA databases maintained by the Helicoptersafety.org and Baum, Hedlund, Aristei & Goldman, PC. The Helicoptersafety.org website has a comprehensive UK helicopter accident database. From the analysis, aircrew errors prevailed as the major causes of helicopter accidents.