Human Factor

Safety In the Working Environment   Engineers should ensure that they keep the working environment safe.  Clutter,  rubbish, etc. is not only a nuisance to others, but can constitute a danger (e.g. a trip  hazard, fire hazard, etc.).  AMT should be careful when working on the  line not to leave objects when a job has been completed.  Foreign Object Damage  (FOD) is a risk to aircraft operating at an airfield. Types of  workplace hazards  include chemical, ergonomic, physical, psychosocial and general  workplace . ASC 2 of 2015 VRS   Work environment  is used to describe the surrounding conditions in which an employee operates.  W ork environment  can be composed of physical conditions, such as office temp., or equipment, such as personal computers. It can also be related to factors such as   work  processes or procedures. Safety When Working On Aircraft   Before operating or working on...

Error management:                    • prevent errors from occurring;                    • eliminate or mitigate the bad effects of errors Two components of error management as:                     (i) error containment  and                    (ii) error reduction. To prevent errors from occurring,                -- to predict where they are most likely  to occur and                -- then to put in place preventative measures.  Incident reporting schemes  (such as MORS) do this for the industry as a whole.  Within a maintenance  organisation, data on errors, incidents and accidents should be captured with a Safety  Management System (SMS), which should provide mech...

Emergencies may include: An injury to oneself or to a colleague; A situation that is inherently dangerous, which has the potential to cause injury  (such as the escape of a noxious substance, or a fire). AMO Role and Responsibility - To provide  appropriate guidance and training . The organisation should also provide procedures and facilities for  dealing with emergency situations and these must be adequately communicated to  all personnel. Maintenance organisations should appoint and train one or more first  aiders. Emergency drills are of great value in potentially dangerous environments. AME  should take part in these wherever possible.  Knowledge of  what to do in an emergency can save lives The basic actions in an emergency are to: Stay calm and assess the situation Observe what has happened;  Look for dangers to oneself and others; Never put oneself at risk. Make the area safe Protect any casualties from further danger...

In the worst cases, human errors in aviation maintenance can and do cause aircraft accidents.  accidents are the observable  manifestations of error. Like an iceberg which has most of its mass beneath the water  line, the majority of errors do not result in actual accidents. “Iceberg Model” of Accidents  Some incidents are more  high profile than others, such as errors causing significant in-flight events that,  fortuitously, or because of the skills of the pilot, did not become accidents. Other  incidents are more mundane and do not become serious because of defences built  into the maintenance system. However, all incidents are significant to the aircraft maintenance industry, as they may warn of a potential future accident should the error occur in different circumstances.  As a consequence, all maintenance incidents have to be reported to  Mandatory Occurrence  Reporting. These data are used to disclose trends and, whe...

Dissemination   is  only half of this communication.  The information is sent out and received, but no reply is given.  The message carrier sends out information, not to one individual, but many in a broadcasting system.  An example of this transmission of information is in fields of advertising, public announcements and speeches.  Both the individual engineer and the organisation in which he works have a shared responsibility to keep abreast of new information.  Good dissemination of information within an organisation forms part of  its safety culture .   Maintenance organisation will be the sender and the individual engineer will be the recipient. “Planning”, that an engineer or team of engineers need to plan the way work will be performed.  Part of this process should be checking that all information relating to the task has been  gathered and understood.  This includes checking to see if there is any inform...

Swiss cheese model   of accident causation is a  model  used in risk analysis and risk management  and as the principle behind layered security. Reason has highlighted the concept of ‘ defences ’ against human  error within an organisation, and has coined the notion of ‘defences in depth’.  Examples of defences are duplicate inspections , pilot pre-flight functional checks ,  etc., which help prevent to ‘trap’ human errors, reducing the likelihood of negative  consequences.  When defences are weakened and breached that human  errors can result in incidents or accidents.  These defences have been portrayed    diagramatically,  as several slices of Swiss cheese . Some failures are latent , meaning that they have been made at some point in the  past and lay dormant. This may be introduced at the time an aircraft was designed or  may be associated with a management decision.  Errors made by front...

Form of Errors in aircraft maintenance engineering:       1. Error that results in a specific aircraft problem that was not there before the maintenance task was initiated;                      incorrect installation of linereplaceable  units,                                                                                failure to remove a protective cap from a hydraulic line before reassembly                     or damaging an air duct used as a foothold while gaining access to perform a task.        2. Error that results in an unwanted or unsafe condition remaining undetected while performing a maintenance task designed to detect aircraft ...