Human Factors in Aviation

 Aviation is a dangerous career field to work and be a part of. There are dangers everywhere and the greatest result of these accidents is caused by human factors. Human factors are errors and discrepancies within aviation caused not by lack of policy or training but the employees and workers themselves involved with the aircraft. Human factors can come in different forms, whether it is cognitive, physical or lack of accountability. 

One of the limitations that humans face is cognitive factors. That can be not having a healthy mental, spiritual, or emotion state. It is important to balance and monitor these conditions because without a healthy mind, an individual cannot contribute their full attention and focus on their job which can result in an accident within the workplace. 

Another factor is physical limitations, this comes as someone's physical inability. This can be someone who cannot lift an item, doesn't have proper training, or physically cannot do a specific task. Finally the last human factor and the most common is lack of accountability. People can easily get complacent and lazy and often times this always leads to an accident within aviation, especially maintenance. 

When it comes to team based activities in aviation, I think of maintenance in the military. I have an experienced background working on the flight-line in the military and all the maintenance that takes place is all team based. It doesn't just take one person or one section to get a jet in the air. It takes everyone because everyone has a different and their own job to do. The biggest challenge in this team is always safety. Everything is revolved around safety, anytime a task is completed on an aircraft it is completed, inspected, signed and documented, and assured by several individuals. The military implements many policies and rules to mitigate these challenges in safety and also having down days called "training days" to slow the pace down and give personnel a comfortable and quality training environment. 

Chapter 14 Human Factors - Faasafety.gov. (n.d.). Retrieved August 3, 2022, from https://www.faasafety.gov/files/gslac/courses/content/258/1097/AMT_Handbook_Addendum_Human_Factors.pdf