A review of human error in aviation maintenance and inspection

Abstract

Aviation safety depends on minimizing error in all facets of the system. While the role of flightdeck human error has received much emphasis, recently more attention has been directed toward reducing human error in maintenance and inspection. Aviation maintenance and inspection tasks are part of a complex organization, where individuals perform varied tasks in an environment with time pressures, sparse feedback, and sometimes difficult ambient conditions. These situational characteristics, in combination with generic human erring tendencies, result in varied forms of error. The most severe result in accidents and loss of life. For example, failure to replace horizontal stabilizer screws on a Continental Express aircraft resulted in in-flight leading-edge separation and 14 fatalities. While errors resulting in accidents are most salient, maintenance and inspection errors have other important consequences (e.g., air turn-backs, delays in aircraft availability, gate returns, diversions to alternate airports) which impede productivity and efficiency of airline operations, and inconvenience the flying public. This paper reviews current approaches to identifying, reporting, and managing human error in aviation maintenance and inspection. As foundation for this discussion, we provide an overview of approaches to investigating human error, and a description of aviation maintenance and inspection tasks and environmental characteristics. Relevance to industry Following an introductory description of its tasks and environmental characteristics, this paper reviews methods and tools for identifying, reporting, and managing human error in aviation maintenance and inspection.