ePITsolutions published its online training dedicated to Human Factors. The module complies with the requirements of Part 145, its AMC and GM regulations, it covers all the subjects with illustrations to put them in situation.
Human Factors in aviation maintenance
EASA Part 145 regulation mandates human factors training for a broad range of staff within the maintenance organizations. This training is mandatory as an initial training as well as a continuation training, with a renewal at a minimum every 2 years.
Several reasons lead to these obligations.
Aviation is an industry where safety is a key business factor. It is essential in order to avoid the accidents as extreme cases, but also to maintain customers trust – airlines and passengers – and essential too, to monitor in an orderly way airports and flights worldwide. In order to ensure this safety, a set of regulations have been issued by Civil Aviation Authorities and are implemented by companies through processes, procedures, work cards, …
In the heart of this system, there are men and women who manage, issue, implement, inspect, … But human beings are fallible. Anyone, even though healthy and duly qualified, makes an average of 7 errors per hour. The source of the error being the human being, the best way to neutralize errors is to train the staff so that they are aware of their limitations and can correct themselves and / or warn when an error has been made.
Then, the human factors training is built so that the trainees understand :
- how important it is to identify errors
- inherent limitations to human beings ( human performances)
- and finally, the measures that may be taken in order to contain the error consequences and prevent them from leading to incidents and accidents.
How important it is to identify errors
Data collected on accidents and major incidents on public air transport alone, have been analyzed for decades. These analysis prove that human factor is an item in the process that leads to the accident. In 2004, with the enforced safety rules and the expected increase of air transport, it was estimated that, if nothing changed, starting 2015 onward, one air transport accident per week would happen. Regulations changes have kept on going and lead, among other things, to the human factors training to be mandatory within the maintenance organizations and to the implementation of the State Safety Plan and the Safety Management Systems within the companies, as prescribed in ICAO annex 19.
This impetus enable to rally all the stakeholders and to have them understand the following principles :
- nobody is infallible,
- reporting errors is crucial to limit their impact,
- take into account the feedback, identify the root causes and correct them are crucial.
It also introduces Just Culture within the organizations.
Inherent limitations to human beings
Each human being has its own physical abilities that enable each of them to grasp his environment and act or react. Understanding the way these physical abilities operate enable to anticipate the human reactions, as one’s reactions, those of the others or those of the group. Therefore it is important to understand the way the most solicited organs operate and how they impact the human performances.
External factors
Once human performances presentation has been developed, the various factors that impact these performances in the day to day work must be figured out. It may be environment conditions, cold, heat, noise , … but also the psychological conditions such as time pressure, culture, work load, … Understanding that these factors impact human performances enable to adopt strategies in order to limit their occurrence and their incidence.
Limit the consequences of the errors.
Understanding human performances and understanding the factors that impact them enable to adopt strategies to limit the mistakes. But as errors will anyhow happen, it also enable to implement a system that aim to limit their impact. The human factors program is part of this system as it enables every employee to gain a better understanding of his performances, his limitations, his impact on safety, …
This ePITsolutions training is presented in the form of animated scenari. The various topics that must be dealt with are explained in accordance with the Part 145 requirements, as an initial training as well as a continuation training. We have also included examples of accidents and incidents that exemplify the real consequences of the topics. These incidents and accidents are taken from the analysis reports published by the French Bureau Enquêtes Analyses and the American National Transportation Safety Board.
As in our other ePITsolutions training modules, we have integrated exercises all along the course in order to give you the opportunity to assess regularly your newly acquired knowledge.
The ePractice part includes exercises which are rated and enable to display numerical results on the knowledge level.
The certificate that you will be able to print, will include the time you spent on the different parts of the ePITsolutions eTutorial and the ePITsolutions ePractice results. You will also find two forms that we recommend you print before starting the training, so that you can fill them in as you progress. The first form enables the recording of the items that you wish the Quality Direction to be aware of in the scope of this human factors training. The second form enables to record the items that you wish us to be aware of. We develop these training for you and we want to offer you with the best experience in eLearning and meet your expectations.