Human Factors and CRM.

Human factors are “issues affecting how people do their jobs” (Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), 2020). Those issues are social and personal skills. The skills are required to maintain the operations running safely and efficiently (CASA, 2020). Therefore, those skills are essential in aviation. However, we need to understand that not just pilots need to have those skills, but everyone around the operations such as “air traffic controllers, management, maintenance, regulatory bodies and policymakers” (Stanton N. A., Li W. and Harris D, 2019).

For pilots, Crew Resource Management (CRM) is the correct use of resources available for the crew. The purpose of CRM is to increase operational efficiency by reducing stress and error. Further, social and personal skills or human factors, as well as other skills, are essential for functional CRM. Also, it is necessary to understand that accidents are a chain of mistakes, and as mention early, CRM lowers the risks for errors.

In a multi-crew environment, CRM is essential to prevent accidents. The reason is that communication between the two pilots, aeronautical decision making (ADM), and situational awareness help to avoid mistakes. For instance, both pilots should divide the workload, decide who is flying, and who is complying with the proper in-flight emergency (communication). Then, to deal with less stress, the pilot flying should engage the autopilot, so he/she doesn’t need to stress about maintaining altitude or a heading (ADM). Next, both pilots need to know the condition of the airplane like fuel remaining and flight path, as well as suitable runways nearby, terrain, and weather around the aircraft (situational awareness).

A good example of a lack of CRM is United Airlines Flight 173. In this accident, the crew failed to monitor fuel quantity after having an issue with the landing gear. Clearly, the pilots and the flight engineer were distracted, dealing with the unusual situation while neglecting the remaining task. However, it is important to understand that before this accident, CRM did not exist. More information about the accident in the following video:

References:

AOPA. (2019). Crm. Retrieved from https://www.aopa.org/-/media/Images/AOPA-Main/News-and-Media/Publications/Flight-Training-Magazine/1907f/1907f_ap_crm/1907f_ap_crm_16x9.jpg?h=675&w=1200&la=en&hash=4EDF84E3D13EE1C96F185FD0CE7A16EB

Neville A. Stanton, Wen-Chin Li & Don Harris (2019) Editorial: Ergonomics and Human Factors in Aviation, Ergonomics, 62:2, 131-137, DOI: 10.1080/00140139.2019.1564589

Safety Management Systems. (2016, February 16). Human factors. Retrieved from https://www.casa.gov.au/safety-management/human-factors

TACG. (n.d.). Flight Deck. Retrieved from https://www.tacgworldwide.com/portals/23/Images/pilot-sighting.jpg?ver=2016-10-12-130534-967