Human Factors and Aviation Psychology in Flight Safety

This report analyzes the impact of human factors and aviation psychology on flight safety, including accidents and incidents, regulatory changes, and ongoing challenges. It explores the role of human limitations, psychological problems, and the importance of training and development for pilots.

Case study analysis

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Definition of human factor and Aviation psychology............................................................3
Overview of accidents or incidents .......................................................................................3
Clarify whether accidents report focuses too much or too little on Human factor or aviation
psychology..............................................................................................................................4
What regulatory changes in the area of human factor and Aviation psychology happened. .4
Impact of these changes on aviation.......................................................................................5
What human factor and aviation psychology areas are still a problem..................................6
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Management is the administration of an organisation or a business. Business can be of
profit, non- profit or government body. Human factors is the interdisciplinary areas of
psychology that focus on various topics. Human factor psychology focuses on the improving and
creating of products, machines, equipment’s and environment to maximise the performance and
safety (Fleuty and Almond, 2020). Flight safety means state of an aviation system that is
associated with activities and in direct support of the operations of aircraft are reduced and
control to an acceptable level. This report covers analyses of human factor limitation and
psychological problems that are among pilots in minimizing incidents and accidents.
MAIN BODY
Definition of human factor and Aviation psychology
Human factor limitations are the set of factors which are most commonly finds in the
aviation accidents. Progress in human factors analysis to improve aviation safety was made
around the time of world war second. There have been numerous recorded physiological factors
like stress, fatigue, workload, etc. and psychological human factors like errors in decision-
making due to habitual biases or incorrect breakdown of information coming to be processed,
etc. that increases the likelihood of causing threat to flight safety due to pilot errors.
Overview of accidents or incidents
Case studies
 Germanwings flight 9525
There have been extreme cases like the famous case of crash of Germanwings flight 9525
in French Alps in which 144 passengers and six crew members had to lose their life (The Real
Story of Germanwings Flight 9525, 2016). In the investigation, it was revealed that co-pilot
Andreas Lubitz intentionally brought down the plane by locking the captain out of cockpit. It
was further revealed in investigation that co-pilot had previously been treated for suicidal
tendencies and was declared “unfit to work” by the doctor. However, this information was
hidden from the employer. Post this incident, aviation authorities in some countries implemented
regulations to make the presence of two authorized persons in the cockpit at all times during the

flight. These two must include at least one pilot. Cases like this are rare but it still requires to be
on vigilance since there is high likelihood of high number of casualties in case of any error.
 Sriwijaya Air Flight 182
The Boeing 737- 500 operating as Sj182 crashed moments after taking off from
Indonesia. There were 56 passengers travelling in that and six crew members were there. It is the
recent case which was on January 2021 (Recent Aviation Crashes, 2021). In this case
investigators indicates that the communication between flight crew and air traffic controllers
provided no clues to the passenger travelling with them. No indication was given before the fatal
crash. The pilot was experienced. So, at the time of these crashes pilots needs to be very careful
in applying their actions. There human action should be very effective. Investigators told that
long time spent inactive can cause corrosion and that technological difficulty may have
developed.
Clarify whether accidents report focuses too much or too little on Human factor or aviation
psychology
Pilots anyway work in complex environment and get routinely exposed to operational
complexity of a flight. It can lead them to operational errors like incorrect altimeter setting which
can deviate the flight from correct course or more grave errors like exceeding structural speeds
or miscalculations in landings or take offs. In addition, they can be induced to human limitations
such as illness, medication, stress, alcohol/drug abuse, overwhelming emotions, etc. Further, they
could have also been limited by natural factors like adverse weather conditions or technical
factors like incorrect instructions from air traffic controller during bird strikes or high terrain.
Crew resources management is the techniques that is used by a crew member to make use of his
experiences and knowledge in in completing flight crew to avoid dependence just one crew
member (Lee and et.al., 2018). Accidents reports focus on human factor and psychological
problems. As human factor plays important role in these two cases. Pilot was suffering from
some mental disorder which is not good for his job and passengers.
What regulatory changes in the area of human factor and Aviation psychology happened
Trends and developments
Length and passenger of being travel in a flight are increasing day by day. When
thoughtful about the mental health and conditions of the pilots, their judgements, decision
making process and role of discrimination. Passengers incidents are regular reported. There are

various measures that are coming in the modern environment. They have worked on reducing the
workload of pilots and reducing their stress so that they could not feel uncomfortable and there
will be no burden on them. It is important to access the interaction between all the flights and all
the crew members. They focus on listening to the safety measures carefully so that they know
what to do if passenger finds any difficulty in the plane (Wiegmann and Shappell, 2017). They
tell all details about seat belt and life jackets. For example, in the case of British airways flight
2276 in the year 2015, there was an emergency clearing due to an engine fire.
Identification and treating of psychological problems:
Psychological problems can occur at any time during the job of pilot career. As it is
important to identify the pilot condition and his mental state of mind. It is the responsibility for
identifying the emotional problems of the pilots for the safety of various life. Currently the aero
medical examiners training is advanced and modern which is mentally focused. Psychologist
play important role in addressing the problem. They provide training to AMEs to increase the
mental health conditions of pilots. Physiologist assist the decision regarding treating of various
conditions. Physiologist establish link and connection by attending regular meeting, taking
training sessions and conferences.
Impact of these changes on aviation.
These changes will helps the pilots in controlling their mental disorders and improving on
them. This will help them in focusing on their job not on the other factors or thing while
performing their job. By providing them proper training an development sessions, pilots can able
to make appropriate decisions and handle any situation flexible (Lee and et.al., 2018). due to this
accidents rates have been reduced in the aviation sector. In the below graph it is seen that there is
a reduction in accidental cases after the changes care made by the investigators or the trainers.

What human factor and aviation psychology areas are still a problem.
There are various human factor and psychology problems that can still becomes a
problems for pilots and passengers. There can be the improper communication and pilot error in
accident of the plane. These human factors are:
 Pilot fatigue: Fatigue is the state where person loses his mental and physical
performance capability. It can be come from workload, sleep loss or extended
wakefulness. This phenomenon can be the great risk for the crew members and travellers
travelling in the aeroplane because it can increase the chances of pilot error. Fatigue is
basically prevalent among pilots because of longer duration of hours and enough
workload and insufficient sleep.
 Pilot while intoxicated: Rarely, crew members arrested and taxable to disciplinary
actions for being drunk on the job. For example, in the case of July 2002, both pilots of
America west airlines flight 556 were arrested just before the flight has to be take off.
Because they are drunk at that time. The pilots were fired and FAA fault their licenses.
 Electromagnetic inferences: Use of several electronic instruments that are entirely
forbidden as it might interfere with the plane operations (Martinussen and Hunter, 2017).
As use of some of the equipment’s are probably prohibited when plane is below 10,000

feet and taking off or landing. Some of the flights do not allow use of mobile phones in
their air plane because they create lot of disturbance or problems.
 Careful aircrew inaction: Sometimes inaction and omission and disregard of safety
measures, risk taking by pilots can also results in accidents and incidents of air plane.
Mental health condition in Pilots
Mental health condition of a pilot is depending on their job. There are several groups in
which mental health condition can negativity affect the mental health of person. Aviation is one
of the industry that can be termed as safety critical Whilst risk cannot be minimised entirely from
such operations. Aerospace industry is one of the long-lasting track records of continuous
improvements to reduce and manage residual and increasing safety measures. Pilots are
responsible for carrying of thousands of people travelling in a plane. For that they need to be
physically and mentally fit to perform their job. They work in that working environment where
they have to face major situation and stressful situations (Maurino and et.al., 2017). So, if pilots
are less trained and less qualified then they need to face major problems that can lead to very bad
results. For example, in the case of Germanwings Flights 9525 crashed in the French Alps killing
hundreds of people and crew. Later it was founded that a plane was crashed by co- pilot who was
previously been suffered from psychosomatic illness and depression. So, for this suggested
practise for monitoring and maintaining mental health well-being of aviation pilots. They are
suggesting various solutions for this mental health problems.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been concluded that flight safety is must for the pilots and also
for the passengers. In these case studies there is a crash because of pilot problems. Human
factors like pilot fatigue can cause very hard and leads to crash in plane. For this pilot needs to be
trained and develop their capacity of handling workload. They should work on their mental and
physical condition so that they can perform their job efficiently.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Fleuty, K. and Almond, M.K., 2020. Remote access therapy for veterans with psychological
problems: Current state of the art. Military medicine, 185(7-8), pp.e1046-e1050.
Lee, K.C and et.al., 2018. An MCDM approach for selecting green aviation fleet program
management strategies under multi-resource limitations. Journal of Air Transport
Management, 68, pp.76-85.
Martinussen, M. and Hunter, D.R., 2017. Aviation psychology and human factors. CRC Press.
Maurino, D.E and et.al., 2017. Beyond aviation human factors: Safety in high technology
systems. Routledge.
Wiegmann, D.A. and Shappell, S.A., 2017. A human error approach to aviation accident
analysis: The human factors analysis and classification system. Routledge.
Online
The Real Story of Germanwings Flight 9525. 2016. [Online]. Available through:<
https://www.gq.com/story/germanwings-flight-9525-final-moments>
Recent Aviation Crashes, 2021. [Online]. Available through
<https://www.baumhedlundlaw.com/aviation-accident/recent-aviation-crashes/>