Human Factor In Ensuring The Safety Of Air Travel †Free Samples

Question: Discuss about the Human Factor In Ensuring The Safety Of Air Travel. Answer: Background: The aviation industry is one of the most significant transportation choice for the people and therefore it is the responsibility of the former to ensure the safety of its passengers (Marais Robichaud, 2012). Aviation maintenance is one of the most crucial part to ensure the safety of air travel. However, the question which is the most significant factor for aviation maintenance and thus safety assurance? is a topic of debate and research in the aviation maintenance industry for a long time. The researchers have determined multiple factors that can be of vital importance for ensuring the safety of air travel. However, the most debated factor is the human factor and its role in aviation maintenance. Human factors refers to the response offered by the humans to particular products, services and environment (Patnakar Taylor, 2017). Some consider the deemed factor to be the most significant while others keep it in the same category with the other factors. The debate has a lot of potential and scope for exploration, and the devised paper is contributing to it. Thesis Statement: This paper argues that aviation maintenance as a human factor is the most significant factor in ensuring the safety of air travels. The deemed argument has been selected to highlight the attention that the human factor deserves for ensuring the safety of air travels. Forecast: The paper is devised to support the claim that suggests human factors are the most significant factor for ensuring air safety with appropriate evidence. However, the paper is not limiting itself to the positive attributes that support the statement but has also provided a contradicting statement. The author has attempted at rebutting the contradicting statement with the help of suitable evidences. The paper has been concluded with recommendations that can be helpful for the aviation maintenance along with suggestions for efficient use of human factors. Reason 1: Human errors are the biggest reason for the aviation accidents, and 50% of those are associated with human maintenance errors. Evidence 1: Humans tends to make errors if they are not comfortable in the workplace. Comfort at the workplace may refer to anything from the designated work to the environment or may even relate to the pay or work and managerial pressure (Karwowski, 2012). All of these together form the human factor and thus are of great significance. Additionally, it is the responsibility of the human to determine the mechanical errors during the maintenance of the aviation devices, which can be troublesome, if the former are distracted or are ignoring their works. The faults in the devices may get passed undetected which may cause substantial causalities. Air France Flight 447 disaster on 1st June 2009 is one of the most significant example of the causality faced by aviation industry due to the human factors (McFarlane Hills, 2013). The fault was evaluated in the pilot tube that disabled the autopilot mode and hence the catastrophic result. The pilot tube fault was not the first instance in the deemed case a s it had already occurred nine-time between 2008 and 2009 (Salmon, Walker Stanton, 2016). Though the fault was ignored continuously and thus the negative human factors response caused the disastrous result. Reason 2: Human factors help in increasing the productivity of the employees which leads to proper risk assessment of the aviation device and thus assuring safety. Evidence 2 Human factors, if given proper attention will help the employees to give their best and ultimately result in increased productivity (Dul et al. 2012). The increased productivity will result in proper maintenance of the aviation equipment and potentially may also help in the development of some apparatuses or methods that can assure the safety of air flights (Helmreich Merritt, 2017). The reason for the above-made statement is that when the factors are correct, the employees are motivated to put forth their best and achieve the self-defined targets. They evaluate their work for associated risk and improvement. This assessment can lead them in to developing a device or method that can be of assistance in their designated work. ST (Singapore Technologies) Engineering Ltd. is one such organisation which maintained its human factors appropriately, and that resulted in determining the use of drones to enhance the safety process ("CAAS and ST Aerospace collaborate to test beyond visual lin e of sight drone operations in Singapore", 2018). Alternative View: However, some scholars in the field of aviation maintenance have put the human factors in equal with the mechanical factors or other involved factors. They cite that the mechanical factors are of equal significance as that of the human factors. Dismissal of Alternative View: The scholars who have cited that the results which may occur due to the mechanical factors are of equal significance as that of the human factors are partially correct. The reason for the statement above is the fact that the mechanical failure is preventable and limited, that is after the completion of the maintenance the mechanical failure can be evaluated in the risk assessment process. However, if the human refuse to abolish the fault(s) than the results are catastrophic (Wiegmann Shappell, 2017). So, the mechanical factors depend on human factors for their structuring. Hence, portraying mechanical or other factors with equal importance to that of the human factor is not justified. Conclusion: The ongoing discussion can be concluded to state the fact that human factors are the most significant factors of all the other factors associated with aviation maintenance that ensure the safety of air travels. The author by no means denies the importance of other factors. However, it is also suggested that all those factors cannot be kept in the same significant level as that of human factors. Recommendations: The significance of human factors in ensuring the safety of the air travel has been discussed. However, the question that remains undefined is how to enhance compatibility of the human factor and the humans. The answer to the above mentioned question can be many. However, the most suitable answer would be by understanding the needs of the human and bending the human factors to make it suitable for the former. Additionally, training programs are also offered by different academies like Singapore Aviation Academy (SAA), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and others to enhance the relationship between the humans and human factors. The training programs assist the managers in developing suitable human factors for the employee, and the employees are trained to cope up with the human factors. References: CAAS and ST Aerospace collaborate to test beyond visual line of sight drone operations in Singapore. (2018).Caas.gov.sg. Retrieved 23 February 2018, from https://www.caas.gov.sg/about-caas/newsroom/Detail/caas-and-st-aerospace-collaborate-to-test-beyond-visual-line-of-sight-drone-operations-in-singapore/ Dul, J., Bruder, R., Buckle, P., Carayon, P., Falzon, P., Marras, W. S., ... van der Doelen, B. (2012). A strategy for human factors/ergonomics: developing the discipline and profession.Ergonomics,55(4), 377-395. Helmreich, R. L., Merritt, A. C. (2017, November). 11 Safety and error management: The role of crew resource management. InAviation Resource Management: Proceedings of the Fourth Australian Aviation Psychology Symposium: v. 1: Proceedings of the Fourth Australian Aviation Psychology Symposium. Routledge. Karwowski, W. (2012). The discipline of human factors and ergonomics.Handbook of Human Factors and Ergonomics, Fourth Edition, 1-37. Marais, K. B., Robichaud, M. R. (2012). Analysis of trends in aviation maintenance risk: An empirical approach.Reliability Engineering System Safety,106, 104-118. McFarlane, P., Hills, M. (2013). Developing immunity to flight security risk: prospective benefits from considering aviation security as a socio-technical eco-system.Journal of Transportation Security,6(3), 221-234. Patankar, M. S., Taylor, J. C. (2017).Applied human factors in aviation maintenance. Taylor Francis. Salmon, P. M., Walker, G. H., Stanton, N. A. (2016). Pilot error versus sociotechnical systems failure: a distributed situation awareness analysis of Air France 447.Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science,17(1), 64-79. Wiegmann, D. A., Shappell, S. A. (2017).A human error approach to aviation accident analysis: The human factors analysis and classification system. Routledge.