Human Factor in Aviation-

An introduction
Er. Raju Shrestha
Deputy Director
Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal
27th June 2017
 Session outline
Objective
Concept of human factors
History of human factor in aviation
Examples
 Session objective
By the end of session the participants will be
able to-
1. Describe importance of human factor in
aviation
2. Explain history and evolution of human
factor in aviation
3. State various factor that have impact in
human performance
Early commercial aircraft
Modern jet
Human factor-What does it mean?
What is human factor??
Human Factors
Human factors refers to
the study of humans as
components of complex
systems made up of
people and technology.
These are often called
sociotechnical systems.
 Human Factors

Human factors is concerned with

understanding the performance capabilities
and limitations of the individual human
operator.
As well as the collective role of all the
people in the system which contribute to its
output.
Which therefore includes factors such as
organizational culture.
 Human Machine Interface
Visual
Aural
Olfactory
Gustatory
Kinesthetic
A bad day at the office!
Another bad day at the office!
 Human Factors:
What about aviation?
Over the past 40 years, over 80%
of accidents and incidents were
related to the human element
and were largely preventable
through the proper application of
Human Factors principles.
If the accident or incident rate is
to be decreased, human factors
must be better understood and
the knowledge more broadly
applied.

http://www.cami.jccbi.gov/AAM-600/610/600Air-HFB.html
 History
Flight safety is the major objective of the
International Civil Aviation Organization.
Considerable progress has been made, but
additional improvements are needed and can be
achieved. It has long been known that some
three out of four accidents result from less than
optimum human performance, indicating that
any advance in this field can be expected to
have a significant influence on the improvement
of flight safety
 ICAO adoption of HF
This was recognized by the ICAO Assembly, which in
1986 adopted Resolution A26-9 on Flight Safety and
Human Factors. As a follow-up to the Assembly
Resolution, the Air Navigation Commission
formulated the following objective for the task:
"To improve safety in aviation by making States more
aware and responsive to the importance of human
factors in civil aviation operations through the
provision of practical human factors material and
measures developed on the basis of experience in
States."
 Regulatory requirement
Annex 1-flight crew, ATC, FOO, AME/AMT
Annex 3- MET training and interpretation
Annex 4-interprepation
Annex 6-OPS/checklist/AOM/ MCM/MP
Annex 8-chapter 7operating environment and
human factors
Annex 10- Nav aids
Annex 11- ATS personnel training
Annex 14- Aerodrome emergency
Annex 15- AIM coordination
People are not autonomous, they are
component of system
Understanding human error
 Human factors covers many areas:

Perception
Memory
Learning and Motivation
Personality interpersonal relations
Human-computer
Human Information
Processing
Fatigue
Ergonomics
Communications
interaction
Error
Anthropometrics
Culture national, organizational, professional
 The Human Contribution to
Aviation Safety
The negative dimension:
Considered systemically, the human factors
contribution to accidents and incidents is
nearly 100%, for most well defended
sociotechnical systems.
Myth- People are problems
 The Human Contribution to
Aviation Safety
The positive dimension:
It is also clear from operational experience and
accident/incident investigation that humans
play the primary role in maintaining and
enhancing the safety of the aviation system.
Reality-people create safety
 Origin of human factors
WW I
Royal Air Force accident rate Every 100 pilots
killed

-2 were killed by enemy

-8 killed due engine or mechanical failure
-90 killed due own individual deficiency
 World War II
Little improvement in technology until 1930
with military aircraft like Hawker Hurricane,
Spitfire etc. with great advancement in
aircraft performance.
With WW II at door:
-more pilots need
-less time to train them
-new technology like RADAR introduced
 WW II: birth of human factors
Extremely high loss rate especially during
training
New weapons failed to meet the designed
potential
Weak link- performance of human operator
Beaufort
 Key facts
140 Beauforts lost mostly fatal between
1942-1943
One loss every 3 days
4 crew members
Reluctance to accept anything was wrong
with the aircraft
Easy to accuse pilots for mishandling
Research on Human psychomotor
performance
 Matching and machine
Design aircraft and other machine to
optimize the man and machine interface
components
This field was known as human engineering,
human factors, ergonomics, human
performance
 Can he reach the switch?
Will it be accurate?
 Is he getting exact one?
Easy??
 Summary
Human is at the center of all activities in
aviation
Human is both weakness and strength in
aviation
Human is fallible
Only the means to check the human failure is
the purpose of modern human factor
principles in aviation
 Discussion!!
Thank you for patience!

Raju.shrestha@caanepal.org.np