Thesis Plan: Analyzing Human Factors in Aircraft Maintenance Impact

This document outlines an initial plan for a research thesis focused on the influence of human factors in aircraft maintenance. The research aims to analyze the impact of human factors on aircraft maintenance, identify factors causing accidents in the aviation industry, and recommend strategies for minimizing these accidents. It uses a descriptive research design and plans to collect data through online surveys of 100 employees in the UK aviation industry, employing a quantitative data analysis approach with a Likert scale. The expected outcome is to identify the impact of human factors on aircraft maintenance and contribute to minimizing accidents and errors. The plan also addresses potential risks, ethical considerations, and a timeline for the research project, highlighting the importance of human factors in aviation safety and quality.

Aviation Human Factors Research Thesis (10000 words) –
Initial Plan Pro-forma
Please complete this initial outline for your thesis research (short notes or bullet points are fine). You should be able to explain each point
in a few sentences (max), we do not need reams of writing at this stage. Research topic could be anything you select – but this should be
aviation human factor related.
Student Name: Date:
(1) What is the topic area and overall aim of your
project? What is the area you want to investigate and
the broad aim you are hoping to achieve?
The topic is “The influence of human factor in aircraft maintenance”. The aim of
the research is to analyse the impact of the human factors in the maintenance of
aircraft. The research aims at identifying factors that causes accidents in the
aircrafts in aviation industry.
(2) What is the research question?
This should be a simple sentence outlining the key
focus of the research and what want to answer
through your well designed study.
The research question of the study is to analyse the importance of human factor in
aircraft maintenance.
(3) What are the objectives of your project? What are
the specific things you need to do to answer your
research question?
To analyse the impact of human factor in the maintenance of aircraft
To identify factors causing accidents in the aviation industry
To recommend strategies for minimizing the accidents in aviation industry
(4) What is the rationale?
Why is this research needed? Consider the academic/
theoretical as well as applied/practical rationale? What
does the key literature you have already sourced say?
In the UK, during 1982 to 1991, there have been 1270 Mandatory Occurrence
Reports (MOR) that have been involved in the maintenance errors submitted to
CAA Safety Data Department (Abbassi et al. 2015). There have been increase in the
damage in aircraft in the UK aviation industry. Therefore, this research has focused

on the reasons and factors causing different types of accidents and delay in the
aviation industry of the UK. The human factor errors have been identified from
previous literatures and research papers (Dmitriev et al. 2015). Therefore, this
research will focus in the impact of the human factors in the aviation industry and
aircraft maintenance. The safety and quality services of the aircraft have been
depended on the human factors in aviation industry. Human factors have been
main aspects in the aviation. This research will focus on importance of the human
factor in the aviation industry.
(5) What do you want to do and how do you plan to
do it? What methodology/methods might you use?
Please be as specific as you can.
The research will use a descriptive research design for analysing the impact of
human factors in the aircraft maintenance. The descriptive approach will help in
making a conclusion to the analysing done issuing the literature review and other
research papers. Data will be collected from primary data collection method and
online survey will be held using 100 employees in the UK aviation industry. 10
close ended survey questionnaire will be created using Google Forms and
uploaded online. Quantitative data analysis will be selected for analysing collected
data and information. Likert Scale ranging from 1 to 5 will be selected for analysing
the data.
(6) What might you expect to find or what are the
benefits from your work?
The expected outcomes of the research will be identifying the human factor
impact on the maintenance of the aircraft. This research will help in minimizing
accidents and errors due to human factors in the aviation industry.
(7) Who will the study involve – participants/any
organisations? Are any permissions required? How
feasible is access to this sample? How likely is
organisation buy-in if applicable? Do you know who
you would need to get permissions from?
The employees of the UK aviation industry will selected as participants in the
online survey. The sample size of the survey will be 100 employees of the UK
aviation industry. There is no requirement of permission for the online survey.
Employees who are ready to take part in the survey will be selected (Hopkin 2017).
(8) Materials/Equipment The literature review will be done using various journals based on the human

Do you require any specific materials/equipment to
conduct your research? Do you have access, or do you
need permission (is this likely)?
factor in aviation industry. The journals will be after 2012 year and all journals will
have author name (Reason and Hobbs 2017). Likert Scale will be used during data
analysis method. Charts, graphs and tables will be used for outcome and result
representation.
(9) Where do you intend to run the research project? The research will be run in the UK aviation industry.
(10) Planning & Timescales
Briefly detail key planning issues and present a rough
time plan for your project over the period (you can use
bullet points or include a separate Gantt chart).
Research project hand out date 22/01/19
Task Name Duration Start Finish
The influence of human factor in aircraft
maintenance 237 days 22/1/19 19/8/19
Topic selection for the study 1 day 22/1/19 23/1/19
Preparing the layout for proposal 20 days 23/1/19 Fri 25/1/19
Design the research proposal 7 days 25/1/19 2/2/19
Literature Review 14 days 2/2/19 16/2/19
Developing the proper methodology for
research 50 days 16/2/19 26/2/19
Collection of the Secondary Data 25 days 26/2/19 14/3/19
Analysis of the Data 75 days 14/3/19 26/3/19
Collection of findings from the analysis 50 days 26/3/19 1/4/19
Drawing conclusions from the study 20 days 1/4/19 6/4/19
Preparation of rough draft for the study 10 days 6/4/19 10/4/19
Review and final submission of the work 7 days 5/16/19 19/8/19
Full Research project due date 19/08/19
(11) Risks/contingencies What do you consider to be
the top three risks to your research? What could be
the impact and how might you mitigate against them?
The survey participants might not be ready for providing proper answers to the
questions of survey. Budget and timeline will be an issue for the research. Budget
allocated for the research might not be sufficient for using advanced tools during

What alternative strategies might you consider? data analysis. The time required for the research might be less.
(12) Ethics What do you consider to be the key ethics
issues associated with your research (e.g. working with
vulnerable people, ensuring participation is voluntary,
participant confidentiality, sensitive issues etc.)?
The research will follow all the ethics of academic research. Data and information
will be secured under the Data Protection Act 1998. No data will be tampered
during data analysis. Private data and information of the survey participants will
not be used in the research.
(13) Supervisor – do you have a supervisor in mind?
No preference is fine. If you do have a supervisor in
mind this cannot be guaranteed, we will do what we
can to accommodate, but need to balance allocations,
topic areas and other commitments.
No preference
(14) Please provide the references for up to five key
sources from the literature (likely to be those you have
mentioned in section 4).
Abbassi, R., Khan, F., Garaniya, V., Chai, S., Chin, C. and Hossain, K.A., 2015. An
integrated method for human error probability assessment during the
maintenance of offshore facilities.
Process Safety and Environmental
Protection,
94, pp.172-179.
Dmitriev, S., Burlakov, V., Popov, O. and Popov, D., 2015. Technological processes
and quality control in aircraft engine maintenance.
Aviation,
19(3), pp.133-137.
Hopkin, V.D., 2017.
Human factors in air traffic control. CRC Press.
Reason, J. and Hobbs, A., 2017.
Managing maintenance error: a practical guide.
CRC Press.
Wiegmann, D.A. and Shappell, S.A., 2017.
A human error approach to aviation
accident analysis: The human factors analysis and classification system. Routledge.