Human Engineering Case Study

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Introduction: Human Engineering

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A flight accident is defined as a malfunction of the flight engine and a crash down into the water or land area. The chance of an air crash for 24 million hours is only 6.84 of every 100,000 flight hours. There are several causes of flight accidents; they are errors by the pilot, mechanical errors, and changes in the weather. Mechanical error is the second most important cause of flight accidents, 22% per cent of the total accidents are due to mechanical error. The change in weather is another important cause of flight accidents, 12 per cent of the total accident is responsible due to this reason.

Background

In this modern lifestyle, everyone is becoming busy due to the huge work pressure because people are interested in travelling by airway. To meet this requirement airline companies are increasing the number of airways for different airlines, to meet this huge air traffic a good system with management is always needed. Accidents happen whenever conditions fail and in history, it is seen that the greatest number of people died in the accident of Japan Airlines Flight 123 where 520 people died. Another important accident is the accident of 1977 where 583 people died in the collision of two Boeing 747 airways. The first accident happened on 3rd march of 1974 when 200 or more people died.346 numbers of people died in the accident of Turkish airline flight 981 and 33 numbers of the accident happened were 200 or more people died. The largest number of people who died in an accident with single aircraft is when Japanese Airlines flight 123 crashed, this happened when the year was 1985. 583 numbers of people died in the accident between the two Boeing 747 aircraft in 1977. 2996 numbers of people lost their lives in the terrorist attack on 11 September 2001. This is the deadliest flight accident that happened when the world trade centre in NewYork was attacked by a terrorist group with the help of an aero plane crash. The four aircraft that started from the east coast airports of California were hijacked by the terrorists to attack the north and south towers of the world trade centre using suicidal attacks (Ivošet al. 2021).

Case Study

Air Midwest Flight 5481 was a regularly running flight that departed from “Charlotte Douglas International Airport” and arrived at the airport “Greenville–Spartanburg International Airport in Greer, South Carolina”, in the morning of January 8, 2003, the airline stalled while it started its journey from the “Charlotte Douglas International Airport” and crashed with the aircraft hangar, the number of people died in this accident is numbers of 21. In this accident, some of the cabin crew and people on the ground were also injured.

Reasons for flight crash

Flight accidents can be occurred due to different reasons some of which are equipment failure or the malfunction of the devices, errors from humans, collision in the mid-air, errors from the pilot, and changes in the weather. Mechanics, cabin crew, ground staff, and traffic controllers everyone is responsible for the safe operation of the airways as they play an important role in maintenance and safety operations. So to reduce human error and perform properly the training and performance checking should be done at regular intervals. Mid-air collision is the less common type in the accident category because the airlines of today are using modern technology to control traffic and it automatically detects the traffic in the airport area and provides proper decisions so that the take-off and landing of the aero plane become safe. Pilots are responsible to transport the passengers from the source to the destination. In general, pilots are efficient in their work but in some cases where they fail to perform properly when an accident occurs. Weather information is an important factor for safe journeys while running the airline service. The change in weather creates trouble for the pilot authorities for this the weather update should be proper and accurate.

Organizational Failure

Aero plane accidents can occur due to different reasons all the reasons can be classified into two factors, they are organizational causes and individual causes. A complex system for the operations of flights is a reasonable cause for the flight accident because whenever a fault appears there it becomes difficult to detect the fault; this leads the total thing into a fatal accident. So to avoid this cause the operating system of the organization should be simple and easy to understand for everyone. The training of the employees for using the organization system is always dependent on managerial decisions for this it’s important to consider the checking of managerial decisions at frequent intervals of time is important as the proper training process is responsible for providing better safety in working. A flight accident can happen due to the fault of several people associated with the work. Fault of front-line operators such as errors and violations of rules responsible for minor accidents. A major accident occurs due to the fault of the builders, procedure writers, top-level managers and maintainers. Every accident happens due to several ignored facts, the fault can be technical or the fault of humans for this every cause must be considered a serious issue and action against them should be immediate.

Immediate Failure Cause

The immediate cause such as communication problems from the airport traffic system, malfunctioning of the airport parts, improper maintenance of the airport system, and improper weather such as volcanic ash, birds and other systems are also responsible for the aircraft crash. These factors can arise individually or more than once at a time such as arising of a volcano after a long time in this situation airline company has to shift its route to a new one which can lead to additional traffic in the system (Angel et al. 2019). In some of the accident cases, the bird enters into the cock pit of the engine for this several accidents also occur; to prevent such a type of accident the cock pits should be modified in such a way so that this doesn’t happen repeatedly (Kankiet al. 2023). The air traffic management system is an important part of providing security to the passengers for this the working of it must be proper and the communication from the pilot must be proper. In some, cases, where the communication with the pilot failed due to not using the latest technology, which was the cause of the accident in the airports, to get rid of this airline companies should always use the latest technology associated with their system. Airport maintenance is an important security step for the passengers of the airline organization. In this process, different parts of the aero plane are repaired and replaced. The work is completed within a very short time for this there may be some fault in the work and this creates a cause for the aero plane accident; to avoid this all the work should be inspected in a proper way before the flight take off from the airport. With the help of technology and robotics in the replacement process, the work can be completed firstly with accuracy for this use of technology should be increased in this field.

Cultural and behavioral aspects of the Accident

Cultural or behavioral aspect plays an important role in providing security for airline organization. The operating capability and the ability to control unexpected situation is different for every pilot and cabin crew of every airline organization. This becomes one cause for providing security to airline passengers in unexpected situations. This can be controlled by providing proper training exercises at frequent time intervals. The Air Midwest Flight 5481, Beech craft 1900D, crashed due to improper pitch control while they are taking off from the airport (Illankoonet al.2020).

Reasons for accident and Recommendations

An aero plane accident happens due to several reasons such as miscommunication between the pilot and the traffic control authority, entering of birds into the cockpit, bad weather, ash from the volcano, improper maintenance work, removal of snow and ice in the airport and many more (Jinet al. 2021). The pilot always communicates with the nearby airports to know their position in the sky and to traffic control authority and to know about the landing permission at the required airport, but when they fail to communicate and without any communication, they land their aero plane all this thing leads to an accident (Jiang et al.2022). The pilots should be properly trained so that they can handle the situations in every possible way and the communication devices must be working with the latest technology. The birds enter the cock pit in this situation the engine of the aero plane stops in the middle of the sky to resolve this issue cockpit should be designed in a certain way so that the birds can’t enter the cockpit easily. Bad weather such as foggy weather, snow in the airport, dust or smog in the airport is another important cause of aero plane accidents. The runway of the airport must be cleaned and free from snow always so that there is no accident while aero planes are taking off and landing in the airport. Dust and smog in the airport area increase due to the pollution levels of the area for this the visibility of the runway reduces, and to get rid of this problem the pollution level for the airport locality must be strictly controlled. Maintenance work is an important part of operating aero planes. The replacement of the wheel and other works are associated with it and most of the process is associated with manual work by ground staff. This method is not good for accurate work and this can be done by implementing robotics and machine work all this can lead the thing to a better secure journey for the aero plane passengers.

Swiss Chess Model

The Swiss chess model is the model used to determine the cause of accidents by examining the different facts step by step (Zimmermann et al.2021). This model is very helpful to examine the cause of accident in the most accurate way as the consideration for every fact is taken into the account. Chess has different layers and all these contain different numbers of holes, to examine the whole chess every layer should be examined separately. To examine any accident event, the event should be clearly examined by considering every fact and this can be done using this model. The accident for the Air Midwest Flight 5481, Beech craft 1900D happened due to improper loading though the limit for the loading was below the maximum. The investigation team told that the incorrect rigging for the elevator control is the reason for this, and all this lead the thing into improper peach for this the plane lost its control (Key et al. 2022). There was repair work before the two nights of the journey and the mechanics associated with the work were not experienced in that type of work. They were totally new to the work and they set the cable for the elevator in an inappropriate way for this the accident happened. In general, after any maintenance work, the work is scrutinized thoroughly but in this case, the supervisor of them skipped the process. The pilot calculated the flight is not overweight but his calculation is not proper as the airline calculator system was for average weight and the aero plane was overweight by 580 pounds, all these facts lead the thing into an accident (Virtuoso et al.  2020).

Conclusion

It is always expected that the flight should be operated in the safest possible way. The accident of an aero plane happens due to several facts and in this work, all these things are clearly discussed along with the possible solutions. The report is prepared to discuss the accident of the aero plane “Air Midwest Flight 5481, Beech craft 1900D” and investigate the cause of the accident. The report also described the organizational and immediate cause of the accident along with cultural and behavioral aspects behind the aero plane accident. The inspection for the accident is an important thing so that the preventive measures for such a situation can be decided to provide a safe journey for the passengers.

References

• Angel, K., 2019. Calculating the Location of the Center-of-gravity Using an Accelerometer Array (Doctoral dissertation, Rochester Institute of Technology).
• Illankoon, P. and Tretten, P., 2020. Judgemental errors in aviation maintenance. Cognition, Technology & Work, 22(4), pp.769-786.
• Ivoš, P., 2019. Istraživanjezrakoplovnihnesre?auzorkovanihnepravilnimplaniranjemiizra?unomlisteuravnoteženjaioptere?enjazrakoplova (Doctoral dissertation, University of Zagreb. Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences. Division of Transport. Department of Air Transport).
• Jiang, T.W., Lu, C.T., Fu, H., Palmer, N. and Peng, J., 2022. An Inductive Approach to Identify Aviation Maintenance Human Errors and Risk Controls. The Collegiate Aviation Review International, 40(1).
• Jin, L., 2021. Airline Maintenance Outsource Strategy and Aviation Safety (Doctoral dissertation, Purdue University Graduate School).
• Kanki, B.G. and Hobbs, A.N., 2023. Maintenance human factors and flight safety. In Human Factors in Aviation and Aerospace (pp. 477-515). Academic Press.
• Key, K.N., Schroeder, D.J., Durham, J.D., Choi, I., Hu, P.T. and Avers, K.E., 2022. Procedural Noncompliance in Aviation Maintenance: A Multi-Level Review of Contributing Factors and Corresponding Mitigations.
• Virtuoso, M.M.V., 2020. A fadiga no contexto das operações de manutenção de aeronaves (um estudoenvolvendoempresas de manutençãoem Portugal continental) (Master's thesis).
• Zimmermann, N. and Mendonca, F.A.C., 2021. The Impact of Human Factors and Maintenance Documentation on Aviation Safety: An Analysis of 15 Years of Accident Data Through the PEAR Framework. The Collegiate Aviation Review International, 39(2).