Aviation Human Factor: Fatigue



Abstract

The research is based on the importance of the aviation human factor, Fatigue. Since, the number of accidents and air crashes due to the fatigue factor are quiet higher; the focus of the study is to provide relevant information related to remedies and prevention from fatigue in civilian and military aviation industries. The causes and impacts of fatigue on the aviation industry have been exposed as well as the countermeasures, models, rules and other proposals in order to diminish the impact of fatigue has been highlighted. Recommendations for the future have been proposed to reduce the affects of fatigue, causing a greater number of mishaps in the aviation industry.

Abstract1

Introduction3

Problem Statement4

Significance of fatigue in Aviation human factors5

Researches for remedies to fatigue6

Rules by FAA to prevent fatigue problems in US Aviation Industry6

The challenges proposed by FAA for fatigue remedies6

Issues Raised by ATA in response to FAA's fatigue remedy proposal7

New rules by FAA to close loopholes in the previous rules to prevent fatigue7

New Rule for Shorter shifts and Longer rests7

Fatigue as an organizational problem, directing towards organizational solutions8

Organizational remedies for fatigue9

Efforts of US military aviation to avoid the affects of fatigue9

Fatigue Management Courses by US Military Aviation10

Remedies for fatigue by US Air force personnel10

Conclusion11

Recommendations for Future Researches12

References14

Aviation Human Factor: Fatigue

Introduction

Today, the reliability of the aircraft systems is considerably higher, and it's seldom that there is a hardware failure. Thus, safety threats mostly stems from the lacks in the individual's performance. The significant factor that may affect human performance can be fatigue. This paper intends to focus on the human factor, fatigue and examines why this factor is important for the aviation industry. The research illustrates the efforts of the US federal aviation administration (FAA) regarding the risks due to fatigue, to understand, quantify and remediate the problem for the working environment of aviation.

Reviews related to the recent development in spreading awareness and the mitigation processes have been highlighted, that examines the transitioning of the efforts for the aviation industry. FAA's describes the problems and offer a wide range of solutions that are realistic in nature such as;

It describes the environments to work in the air traffic control

The management of the air traffic control

Facilities provided by airways for technical operations

The personnel such as, the pilots, the flight attendants, the maintenance crew and the engineers.

(Nesthus & Avers, 2009).

Problem Statement

Pilot fatigue has been found to be the under-reported problem in case of the civilian aviation as well as in military aviation, although it is a significant issue as the official statistics specify that about 4-8% of the aviation mishaps involved the human factor fatigue. The surveys revealed fatigue as a key concern because of 24/7 flight operations. Efforts are aimed to limit the flight hours so that the pilots and crew members may have at least few hours of rest in order to mitigate the difficulties related to fatigue, but it is quiet clear that there is a need to do much in order to ensure safety against ...