Human Factors in Aviation

 

Human factors play an important role in aviation; in fact, nearly 80% of all aviation accidents and incidents have occurred due to human error. For that reason, the human factors concept has gained importance in the last few years. Many people think that human factors are just a synonym of Crew Resources Management (CRM), however, it involves much more than that. The human ability to interact with the system, machines, manuals, the environment, and even with other people makes part of the definition of human factors (Boeing, 1999). In order to better understand this topic, psychologists have developed frameworks and models such as the SHELL model.

The shell model is a tool created to analyze the interactions of all the components described earlier. It has 4 elements which are S (software), H (hardware), E (environment), and L (liveware). The Liveware is the core of the Shell Model and when a mismatch between liveware and any other element occurs, it will entail a human error (ICAO, 2012).

However, for this blog we are going to focus on the L – L relationship of this model; this is the way we interact with others and now, the CRM concept gains importance again. It is obvious that both pilots need to be proficient but also, but they must be able to perform their tasks as a team, which not in all cases is possible as we are humans. However, good communication is an excellent tool to keep situational awareness and also, makes possible a safe operation. For example, when a flight crew member loses his or her situational awareness, communication will help him or her to recover it by inquiring. The problem with communication is that in many cases, communication barriers exist. For example, a junior first officer may be afraid of correcting an experienced captain who is committing a mistake, and thus, the dangerous situation generated by the captain’s error will escalate. In order to avoid this kind of scenarios, flight crews receive human factors training frequently.  

References:

Satow, R. (1999, June 24). Aero the role of human factors in improving aviation safety. Boeing. Retrieved from https://www.boeing.com/commercial/aeromagazine/aero_08/human_textonly.html

-Doc 9859 ICAO