Human Error in Aviation - Research Paper Example

 Human error in aviation Abstract It will not be reasonable when an individual assumes that a person can be in a position to operate continuously without ever making a mistake. Therefore, human error is considered real and a common problem that cannot be in the aviation industry. Unfortunately, those who encounter this error, usually, have a disastrous result. The huge number of deaths can result from one momentary lapse of judgment. This can cause loss of hundreds of millions in the industry due to damages incurred. Introduction Human error in aviation can be termed as an event that takes place in a flight or aviation related aerodynamics because a given task or a portion of the task was not done with the recommended specification. Human error can occur because many different circumstances. This paper, therefore, views three critical areas of concern that are fatigue, communication and vision. It is paramount to study and understand these primary causes that cause an error in the aviation industry so that trends and breakdowns can be looked at. This will ensure the future safety of the aviation industry should be in line with the standards. For the outstanding reputation of the aviation, industry in the world to continue winning the trust of the clients and reach record-breaking level then the human error must be effectively and minimized to a safe level. Human error in aviation It is necessary to understand the pace setting of the aviation industry which is fast before an accurate discussion of the human error can be on the primary causes. When one visits to any of the major international airports then one can be able to appreciate the tremendous demands that are placed upon the professionals working in the aviation industry who are along the process. In the industry, communication takes place continuously between the many sectors, from the air traffic control to the aircrews to the maintenance and any other facet that lie in between. Any position in the aviation industry looks fulfilling and rewarding, but at certain times, it requires a lot of input in terms of human attention and situational awareness to minimize errors occurring. It is the nature of human beings to make mistakes occasionally from time to time. It is impossible for anyone in the planet to think that an individual can work continuously repeatedly or do anything for that matter without ever making a mistake. Such factors including training, compensation, natural ability and other factors are put in action to try to mitigate human error in the industry. Despite these inputs to avoid errors, at some point human error is inevitable. Examples have been put forth to try to explain and prove the statement of human error being unavoidable in daily life. Such examples include a basketball player whose wages are huge makes a mistake of making a basket in the wrong goal. This error has been seen to occur in several incidences in NBA games. In some settings, human error can afford to laugh but in the aviation industry, this is far from the truth. Countless fatalities in the aviation industry are when an aircraft goes down, or there is a mid-air collision and this can easily cost the airline industry billions of dollars. Like a sigh of relief, accidents such as these do not occur often and seem to be isolated cases. However, professionals in the aviation industry must continue to try to understand the causes of accidents in aviation and how they can do in order to avoid such cases in the future. Unfortunately, most safety programs and initiatives have been put in place in modern systems in aviation because of past incidents. Investigations have been done which proved to be historic in the industry. It has been able to give a clear insight to what exactly are the causes of the accidents and what steps can be put forth to mitigate them in the future. In order to produce recommendations that are like the best and safe in terms of safety matters, the investigations done must always remain clear and focused. With the years having progressed, and the information gotten from most aviation airlines accidents analyzed, the result has appeared to report a very sharp trend to what may experts say are the probable causes of most accidents that have taken place in the aviation industry. Information from one report indicated that flight crew error was responsible for a massive sixty-six percent of all the aviation accidents (Wiegmann & Shappell, 2001). From other studies, this number has been slightly lower but despite the differences in the figures provided in different reports, the majority of the aviation accidents have been proven to come from errors from the flight crew. Incident reporting has also produced similar findings. The incidents are a great value where lessons can be and can be looked at as near accidents. They provide situations where valuable information can be gathered and analyzed without any blood loss. One of the major obstacles that lie ahead of incident reporting is the inability in obtaining all the necessary facts required. The human aspects get to be when the degree of confidentiality is high in the reporting process. This can be simply be said; it has been observed that people are becoming reluctant to tell their superiors, employers and the licensing agencies about the mistakes that they make. They opt to remain silent on the grave issues and not worry on the impact of their character and feedback that can put their career at risk. To complement their in , many countries have now incorporated, voluntary incident reporting due to this known fact of people trying to hide their mistakes from being known. With the help gained from the previous information gathered, it has helped to come to the factual conclusion that the number on the enemy of the aviation industry is the human error. Having this information at hand, what can we do with it to avoid more fatalities? One brilliant idea on how we can deal with this is breaking it into smaller categories that are meaningful and easier to deal with while finding specific determinations. This can also allow management to have something that is direct to help to present flight crews and any other safety concern with it. It is impossible to tell flight crewmembers just a general concern that human errors are the main causes of flight related accidents and they have to pay more attention in what goes on in order for them to avoid these human mistakes. This will look absurd despite being a true statement because it cannot produce effective results that are needed. However, if the management illustrates to the flight crewmembers on the primary causes considered to be main human errors and give them appropriate examples, then chances are that the likelihood of safety in aviation industry will exponentially improve to safer standards. It would improper for one to ignore the fact that there exist several cause of human error, these other causes that do exists are worthy of even deeper discussions. However, there are only three areas that have plagued the aviation industry for a long time. They will be the point of concern. These areas of human error include fatigue, vision and communication. Many aircrafts accidents and fatal incidents in the aviation industry have mainly occurred because of these three errors. Because of this fact, the three human errors have always been the target of any legislative act passed in the quest to combating any potential hazard that can occur, creating dangers to the safety of the flight industry. Fatigue is a normal phenomenon in human beings. We have all had experience fatigue at one point in our lives. Fatigue affects people differently, but no matter the effect it influences to an individual, fatigue makes the individual not being able to perform in his or her optimal best. It is a feeling of exhaustion and tiredness that makes one develops a need to have a rest because the body seems to be lacking energy. It can be by several causes including overwork, poor sleep, boredom, worry or even lack of exercise. It is considered a symptom that may indicate illness or cause by medicine or medical treatment. Fatigue can be by depression and even anxiety in some cases. From other definitions, there is a suggestion that the development of the symptom can also be by the disruption of the circadian rhythm. One of the study that was put forward by the federal aviation administration (FAA), it points out clearly that many commercial pilots are being faced by occupational stresses that are not being encountered by several aviation pilots. However, for pilots of all types’ fatigues is a serious problem. Weariness has been identified to be the causing negative effect to the high mental process needed by pilots to stay focused. Resting inadequately also make people more prone to being annoyed and also known to slow down the reaction time and process to any situation. The detrimental role of fatigue in regard to flight has long been made aware. This has been made evident in the limits that have been placed in the hours of duty for many pilots in the early stages of legislation. The laws of flight hours in recent times have been more demanding than before (Wiegmann & Shappell, 2001). Wiegmann & Shappell (2001)explains lists out different measure put forward to counter weariness in the aviation industry. The work goes from getting adequate amount of resting time before getting back to work to the less conventional ways that include sleeping in the cockpit, bunk sleeping and even lighting in the flight deck. The work also includes the need for having proper nutrition. A lot that has to be said about these measures but the FAA reports summarizes everything up when they emphasize on the need to maintain adequate rest since no degree of medication, motivation, coffee or even experience can overpower fatigue. An individual suffering from fatigue is presumed to be unaware of how tired he or she really is. What to note is that an individual who is not aware of the events that are taking place due to the extent of fatigue until it is too late. Vision role as a component of human error has been seen in many different occasions throughout aviation years. The sense of sight can become an error when individual has an inability to process and do complex tasks pertaining sight to precision. The largest percentage of what humans learn comes from the sight. Accuracy and precision are need for pilots and aircrews, and this can be the difference between life and death for the passengers whose trust is in them. Many horrific airline accidents that one can think of are directly related to vision error or even lack of it. An example of the polish Dreamliner air disaster that occurred in 2010 killing the president of Poland along with several senior dignitaries of that state. The pilot of this crash ignored several warnings that were directed to him not to land the plane at the Russian strip that by then was masked by thick and heavy fog that interfered with visibility. There are also some risks involved in aircrafts that are on the runways. This has become a prevalent problem because aviation industry is going through rapid growth after its deregulation. Deregulation in the aviation industry did lead to the purchase of more airline flights. Despite this increase in a number of flights, the size of airport sizes has not responded by increasing in size to accommodate the large numbers of flight. Therefore, it goes down to the responsibility of the pilots, air traffic controllers and ramp workers to capitalize on the space that is limited to them while keeping safety at hand that actually lacks around. As any person might put it to guess that, many flight operations done at night put the industry at serious risk to encounter human based errors secondary to visual ability. Studies have been done on accidents and incidents that are linked to visual problems ranging from the exposure to bright light that is seen to occur during low-light flight operations. From the research conducted by the national transportation board, of the accidents and incidents observed, it indicated that the majority of the accidents take place during the landing phase of the aircraft while more incidents also occur during the taxing phase in the runways. There is more risk involved when flights are being exposed to bright lights. The development new technology in aviation is becoming increasingly helpful in reducing the accidents in cases where visual flights rules do apply. Time has gone in the aviation history since the Grand Canyon disaster, an accident that was deemed to be among the top ten disasters in the industry by the expert that helped to change aviation. With today’s advancement in air traffic control technology and the equipment that are on board that give alarms on proximity issues, the accident would not have been allowed to take place. However, similar accidents have been seen in modern aviation including mid-air collision. Such collisions are always fatal and result to death of the passengers. Finally, communication error is also a vital point of concern that causes most aviation accidents. Nonetheless, emphasis on effective communication ability cannot be placed. Communication is used in this case not only to refer to voice transmission but also includes the language of the body and any other intangible means of passing information. Modern aircrafts are with the most sophisticated means of communication that are very effective. The pilots use their radio to communicate to the air traffic controllers from whom they received instructions as well as seek for assistance. Despite this technological prowess, the communication equipment in place can experience problems. Despite the availability of radio communication system, there is still some risks for miscommunication arising. Vital part of flying in the aviation industry is the ability of an individual to talk like a professional when making transmission and knowing the exact words to use. One can be as the best pilot but if he or she lacks communication, ability there is a serious risk of safety being posed to the passengers and any person around. Communication problems noted in aviation is that the information can be too long or too short. Too long communication makes it hard for controllers to reply if he or she is also covering other aircrafts. Too brief communication suggests that information needed has not been conveyed. Fatigue, communication and vision are with great facts key areas that must be put into consideration as they are attributed to errors of humans in the aviation world. On the other side, it has been known that people are instrumental to the safety of the aviation industry. Point of concern, in recent aviation accidents, reports show that there is little improvement noted in pilot error. It is difficult to eliminate all the errors due to human factors in flight industry. Through monitoring that is intensive in the accidents and incidents, systems of reports and all the safety programs being initiated, bigger strides can be made to eliminate all the risks involved and make the future of the airline industry safe. As the flight industry continuously looks at ways through which human error can be eliminated, two strategies have predominated the sector. That is Administrative and engineering strategies. The strategies using engineering means employ the use of technology in overcoming the human factors. Use of programs that are going to be fitted in to minimize accidents and incidents is underway in the United States. The use of such programs in the future will not only make air traffic safer but also predictable and hence becoming reliable. Administrative strategies entail training of employees and operating the rules. Continuous legislation has been effected in of to govern the training of pilots and aircrews training as well as restrictions on workloads. The nature of the aviation industry is dynamic; airlines are getting bigger and faster. Their weights are tremendously increasing due to the large number of passengers and fuel. Hence, the people involved must keep at pace with such changes. Conclusion It is impossible to fully eliminate human error in the aviation industry, but they can be minimized. The use of technology in modernizing the industry will make it easy to detect any danger in advance and take prompt actions. Crew and pilot training in career enhancement is vital to keep them at par with new guidelines and flights that require stability to controlling them. Therefore, the government must invest heavily in spearheading the necessary tools in the aviation sector that will enable the safety of the industry rise to a safer level. Reference Wiegmann, D. A., & Shappell, S. A. (2001). Human Error Perspectives in Aviation. The International Journal of Aviation Psychology. doi:10.1207/S15327108IJAP1104_2  Read More