In Focusing On What Pilots Do Wrong, We May Be Missing Valuable Lessons From What They Quietly Do Right

This article from 2019 and published by Forbes, looks at the airline industry and discusses the value in not only studying what pilots do wrong, but also what they do right. The author, Kirsty Kiernan is a professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. She teaches and conducts research in unmanned systems and aviation safety.

The industry knows a lot about what pilots do wrong, but not nearly enough about what pilots do right. How does the role of the human in the system build in resilience? ‘In aviation safety, it’s like we’ve been trying to learn about marriage by only studying divorce.’

Intro to the Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS)

This summary of the HFACS from Skybrary introduces the reader to the basic principles of one of the most well-known and widely used human factors tools in aviation and accident investigation.The Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS) was developed by Dr Scott Shappell and Dr Doug Wiegmann and is heavily based upon James Reason’s Swiss cheese model. The HFACS framework provides a tool to assist in the investigation process and target training and prevention efforts.

Learning from adverse events

Source: Chartered Institute for Ergonomics and Human Factors This white paper from the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors explores human factors in incident prevention and management. Find out how organisations can gain a human factors perspective to investigating and learning from adverse events. Learn the key principles organisations can apply to capture the […]

James Reason’s 12 Principles of Error Management.

James Reason, Professor Emeritus, University of Manchester, set out 12 systemic human factors centric principles of error management in his book Managing Maintenance Error: A Practical Guide (co-written with Alan Hobbs and published in 2003). These remain guiding principles in aviation. Source: Aeroassurance James Reason’s 12 Principles Error management has three components, says Reason: Its the third aspect that is […]

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