Cognition, Technology & Work

, Volume 15, Issue 2, pp 171–188 | Cite as

Investigating the investigations: a retrospective study in the aviation maintenance error causation

  • H. S. J. Rashid
  • C. S. Place
  • G. R. Braithwaite
Original Article
First Online:
Received:
Accepted:

Abstract

In this paper, the impact of human reliability on aviation maintenance safety is investigated. Its purpose is to explore the actual mechanisms of maintenance errors initialization and propagation and hence to identify requisite characteristics for future solutions. Aviation maintenance errors account for between 12 and 15% of the global aviation accidents initiators, and this proportion rises to 23% when serious incidents are included. A wider global exercise of aviation maintenance safety improvement activities is consequently required. The current research applies the human error risk management in engineering systems (HERMES) methodology that conceptualizes two main streams of study: a retrospective investigation into human errors within aviation maintenance contexts, which is the main subject of this paper, and an ensuing prospective innovation of new tools that work to prevent future errors occurring. An extended fresh inquiry and a deeper data-mining process were concomitantly conducted. A new model signifying the initiation, accumulation, and propagation of crucial maintenance human errors within aviation maintenance organizations is thus introduced. Rotorcrafts are taken as a focal case study due to the high criticality naturally associated with their structural and operational characteristics.

Keywords

Helicopter accidents and incidents Aviation maintenance error Human error root cause analysis Fault tree analysis Human reliability 
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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag London Limited 2012

Authors and Affiliations

  • H. S. J. Rashid
    • 1
  • C. S. Place
    • 1
  • G. R. Braithwaite
    • 1
  1. 1.Air Transport Department, School of EngineeringCranfield UniversityBedfordshireUK

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