Introduction
In the wake of multiple aircraft disappearances and accidents, the aviation safety remains a great challenge within the aviation industry today. Human roles on the flight deck, maintenance and inspection are seen to be the leading contributors of most aircraft related accidents. Aviation maintenance and inspection procedures are part of a complex organization where most individuals undertake varied tasks in an environment characterized by time pressures, insignificant and sparse feedback as well as difficult ambient conditions such as poor lighting, long day and night shifts. These situational characteristics and other human erring tendencies have resulted in varied forms of human error in both maintenance and inspection of aircrafts. The severity of these human errors results in accidents that cause loss of life, loss of highly priced aircrafts as well as huge expenses for the insurance players in the aviation industry (Reason, 2010). Most errors resulting in airline accidents are salient inspection and maintenance errors resulting in consequences such as delays in aircraft availability, air turn-backs, gate returns or diversions to alternate airports which decrease airline companies’ productivity and performance through inefficient airline operations. Continued approaches have been developed to tackle this challenge through identifying, reporting and minimizing human factor errors within the aviation maintenance and inspection.
Human Factors affecting Aviation Maintenance and Inspection Procedures
In the aviation industry human error is characterized as a set of human actions that exceed some limits of acceptability or tolerance to the system. Human error in both maintenance and inspection of aircraft takes a multifaceted outlook with various areas of the aircraft on the receiving end. It is understood that human operators are organic mechanisms that influence the hardware and software elements of the systems (Latorella and Prasad, 2000). Human factors also include human behavior involving human reliability. The magnitude of human factors underscores the dire consequences of maintenance and inspection in aviation safety. According to Drury (1997) the relative rarity of aircraft accidents does not imply that maintenance and inspection errors in the airline industry are rare. This is because air accidents results from a combination of causal factors. Hence, the growing focus on human factors in the maintenance and inspection of aircrafts is in a bid to reduce these occurrences since aircraft accidents and incidents are more likely to be caused by human activity other than mechanical failure. With continuous developments and improvements into aircraft systems, mechanical challenges seldom are the root of accidents and incidents.
Human factors affecting both maintenance and inspection include; inadequate training on the specifics of engine as well as inspection, poor tracking of the maintenance responsibility, insufficient lighting in the maintenance workplace, the improper use of job card instructions and lack of work environment conducive to human error. Moreover, the failure by Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspectors failing to apply the develop FAA developed human factors guidelines. With increase in aircrafts the demand for adequately trained aircraft technicians has always been on the rise (FAA, 1995). The labor intensive procedures causes problems in the adoption of human capabilities which results in errors as the technicians try to device shortcuts to lessen the work burden. Advanced technology in the new aircrafts with sophisticated composite structures, avionics and computers demands that regular training among the technicians is done to safeguard the proper functioning and running of these aircrafts. Since human factors involve the human capabilities and limitations the attention to the skills, knowledge and responsibilities of the maintenance and inspection crew will enhance flight safety as well as enhance aircraft maintenance (BAC, 1993).
The length of day and night shifts proves to be a major problem to the maintenance and inspection teams. The seamless transition of one team to another may prove difficult in the works done are not fully documented. This as a result may result in duplication of duties which results in time wastage and unnecessary delays in aircraft availability. Moreover, miscommunication among the teams may result into serious mechanical flaws which threaten the flight safety of an air craft. Moreover, long working hours into the night are a problem to the technicians who through their human nature may tend to slow their output when working.
Availability of reliable tools and equipments availed to the technicians also acts as a challenge especially in a situation where tool and equipment storage inventories are not carefully monitored leading to misplacement or loss of key tools and equipment. Moreover, the continuous upgrade of aircraft demands that introduction of new tools be done, delay to do this may act the efficiency of the technicians leading to poor work. The access to proper tools ensures that work is done in a timely manner and that the output per person is considerably relative to the set standards.
Another challenge that affects the maintenance and inspection procedures is the work conditions in the workplace. The lighting of the hangars where most maintenance and inspection work occurs also can prove a challenge to the proper working of technicians hence inhibiting their abilities to execute their work in a maximum manner. In addition, adverse weather conditions such as snowing or hot sun periods may affect the productivity of technicians (Reason, 2010).
Approaches of Eliminating Human Error in the Aviation Industry
In order to promote and enhance airline safety with minimal or no human error, a set of approaches have been fronted. First, proper maintenance of resource management has to be in place. This ensures that development of maintenance and inspection guidelines has to be undertaken thoroughly through extensive cooperation from the airline industry. This will ensure that early detection of faults in the systems as well as prompt work is conducted on the aircrafts. Proper environment conditions such as lighting and air conditioning of aircraft storage and maintenance facilities goes a long way in enhancing that effective duty is undertaken without allowing any chance for doubtful procedures or work. In addition, the seamless integration of both night and day shifts personnel should be done in a way that ultimate harmonization of activity and communication is attained hence effectively undertaking the procedures (Reason, 2010).
Secondly, the effective maintenance of error reduction in both maintenance and inspection tasks has to be maintained. It involves developing methodologies and techniques to proactively minimize aircraft maintenance errors while enhancing flight safety. The error reduction procedures will dwell on investment into research on error classification, error identification, error mitigation as well as error reduction practices. As a result the classification of errors will better equip the maintenance and inspection crew on how to diagnose and control existing and likely system complications thus leading to enhanced flight incidents or accidents.
Thirdly, the analysis of the various job tasks within the maintenance and inspection procedures must be done. This will facilitate multifaceted techniques to determine necessary knowledge, skills and abilities required in performing specific tasks. The collected and analyzed data on job task analysis will then be applied as the fundamentals of curriculum training for maintenance and inspection technicians to ensure that continuous training enables them to undertake their responsibilities in an organized faultless manner (Gertman and Blackan. 2003). Enhancing and upgrading the training standards of technicians enhances the abilities of the workforce to work within tight deadlines in a comprehensive and professional as well as in a timely manner.
Moreover, the need for continuous maintenance and training leads to improvements in the technicians abilities to work within training curriculums, delivery systems and in the investigation of new technology. The use of prototype training products should be pragmatic and should be aimed at affecting a measurable change in human performance both in aviation maintenance and inspection. Personnel selection methodologies as well as workforce projections are adopted within the maintenance and inspection training category (Drury, 1997). Job aid research efforts can also assist garner information that acknowledges the capabilities, requirements and the limitations of human maintenance. This in depth research activities mainly establishes areas where human performance can obtain maximum benefit from improved procedures as well as new support tools. Through the use of prototypes the technicians are drilled onto how to effectively maximize their output through job aiding techniques and technologies hence resulting in improved safety and task performance.
In addition, information dissemination which acts up a sore human factor those results into adverse maintenance and inspection faults has to be improved and enhanced among technicians working in both day and night shifts. This will enhance proper communication of work related issues to ensure that faultless integration of one team to another hence minimizing human error (Gertman and Blackman, 2003). The development of amicable communication and working agreements ensures that all stakeholders in the maintenance and inspection capacities have a unified and chartered manner in which they effectively implement their procedures.
Conclusion
The safety during flight will remain a dilemma to the world if proper maintenance procedures and inspection activities are not rolled out to maximize their intended use. Shared knowledge and responsibilities within the aviation industry must embrace best practices to ensure that the aircrafts cleared for flight are well maintained to minimize accidents or deaths or poor airline operations through delayed or cancelled flights, gate returns, and aircraft touchdown mishaps among others. Therefore, in a bid to reduce human factor error proper training should be conducted continuously, proper workplace conditions in the workplace should be maintained as well robust communication and work harmonization techniques among day and night shift crew should be enhanced through proper documentation.
References
Boeing Airplane Company (1993). Accident Prevention Strategies: Removing Links in the Accident Chain. Boeing Commercial Airplane Group: Seattle, Washington.
Drury, C. (1997). Handbook of Human Factors and Ergonomis. Willey Publishers. New York.
Federal Aviation Administration. (FAA) (1995). Zero Accidents : A Shared Responsibility. Aviation Safety Action Plan. U.S. Department of Transportation, Washington.
Gertman, D, Blackman, H. (2003). Human Reliablity and Safety Analysis Data Handbook. Wiley Publishers. New York.
Latorella, K., Prasad V. (2000). A Review of Human Error in Aviation Maintenance and Inspection. International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics. Vol 26. 133-161
Reason, J. (2010). Human Error. Cambridge University Press. New York.
