SAFETY MANAGEMENT

Manager's Perspective paper on Aeronautical Science

Manager's Perspective paper on Aeronautical Science

Introduction

Travel by air takes place within a highly centralized and organized environment. The set of rules and regulations in the industry is highly organized. The process of operating an aircraft is difficult than driving a car, so does the safety management at aviation. There are numerous basic requirements for the flight that must be fulfilled.

The aviation industry in terms of safety management is surrounded by a number of problems. The need to solve these problems has increased lately because of an increase in the number of aircraft accidents. In the year 2000, approximately 2000 aircrafts accident took place in the United States.

In the current environment, the aviation industry is confronting a number of challenges. A lot of these challenges are related to human factor in maintenance. There have been several advancements to the study and implementation of programs that involve human involvement. However, these programs still contain inconsistencies.

Discussion

According to a number of studies conducted to identify the causes of aircraft accidents, human factor is the most important problem. The Cockpit Resource Management (CRM) featured pilot training in the late 1970s. The purpose of the training was to reduce the chances of pilot error. The purpose of the training was to focus on a number of factors that can influence aviation safety. In the aviation industry, human factor contributes towards 75% of accidents (Pereira Lima, 2000).

A number of safety personnel at aviation organizations are unaware of the psychological issues associated with aviation safety. There are a number of personnel at the aviation industry who do not even know that human errors exist in the aviation industry. There are diverse perspectives regarding the role of human error in aviation safety.

Wiegmann and Shappel (1997) used cognitive models to analyze human factor errors in the aviation. It has been found through different studies that judgmental factors play an important role in the occurrence of major aviation accidents. However, response execution errors mostly result in minor accidents. According to the system model, the performance of human depends largely on the integration between human and machine. The system perspective states that the human factor cannot be the sole cause of an accident. Therefore, it is important to study the interaction between human and machine that results in accidents. The SHEL model of Edward (1998) provides the best reference for understanding the integration between machine and system design. The basic components of the model include Software, Hardware, Environmental Conditions, and liveware. Software involves different rules and regulations that govern the operations. One the other side, hardware involves equipment, material, and other physical resources.

In the aviation industry, the safety issues are related to the liveware (human). It plays an important role in different accidents that take place in the aviation industry. A number of aviation accidents are caused by the physiological conditions of the aircrew including hypoxia, dehydration, fatigue, and others. These factors come under the category of aeromedical ...